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This study examined the impact of community care on informal care provided by family and friends to homebound elderly persons. Secondary analyses were conducted on data collected from clients at baseline, 9 months (N = 225), and 48 months (N = 76) after acceptance to community care and home-delivered meals programs. Analyses revealed a significant increase in the amount of formal services provided to both groups of clients at 9 months and to community care clients at 48 months. The increase was attributed to the large proportion of "new" or "supplementary" services provided by agencies. No significant decrease in the amount of service provided by informal caregivers was found. In addition, regression analyses demonstrated only a weak impact of formal service on informal care. Analysis of patterns of service provision for each client demonstrated that formal care supplemented rather than substituted for informal care significantly more often in both the 9- and 48-month samples. We conclude that formal care in general supplemented the efforts of informal caregivers, and that informal caregiving remained stable over time.
Edelman et al. (Thu,) studied this question.