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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Predicting health care utilization in the very old: the role of physical health, mental health, attitudinal and social factors | | Author(s) | Michael Linden, Ann L Horgas, Reiner Gilberg |
| Journal title | Journal of Aging and Health, vol 9, no 1,, February 1997 |
| Pages | pp 3-27 |
| Keywords | Health services ; Usage [services] ; Over 70s ; Attitude ; Mental disorder ; Social characteristics [elderly] ; Germany. |
| Annotation | The aim of this paper is to predict health care utilisation in the very old from a combination of individual-based factors, such as physical and mental health, health attitudes and beliefs, sociodemographic characteristics, and life circumstances. This study was conducted within the context of the Berlin Aging Study (BASE). Higher use of medications was most strongly predicted by more medical diagnoses, better cognitive status, and health attitudes. Physician contact was only weakly predicted by physical health variables, hypochondriasis, and living alone. On contrast, living alone was the greatest predictor of the utilisation of increased levels of formal services, while having children nearby served as a protective factor against the need for more formal caregiving services. The results show that utilisation of health care depends on interaction between physical and mental health, attitudinal, and social factors. (AKM). |
| Accession Number | CPA-980407207 A |
| Classmark | L: QLD: BBK: DP: E: F: 767 |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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