Factors Influencing Health Service Knowledge among the Elderly

The Role of Grief, Anxiety, and Depressive Symptoms in the Use of Bereavement Services

“…Health and human service use research suggests that educational level is a predictor of service use among the elderly (Mutran & Ferraro, 1988;Snider, 1980), dementia caregivers (Toseland, McCallion, Gerber, & Banks, 2002), and Black caregivers . It has been hypothesized that lower educational level serves to decrease service use through its impact on the stigmatization of mental health service use, knowledge of the service delivery system and available community resources (Snider, 1980;Wallace et al, 1998), and on socioeconomic status and income (Wallace et al, 1998).…”

Use of Social and Health Services by the Elderly

“…However, the entitlements of the elderly, such as Medicare and Older Americans' Services, may minimize the importance of this factor. Educational level is used as an indicator of potential knowledge of the service delivery system, as previous research has found an association between these variables (Snider, 1980). Because many elderly people require assistance in obtaining services, an assessment of the availability of case management or service coordination is also included.…”

“…Since Supplemental Security Income includes eligibility for many categorical social and recreational programs, it was considered a measure of financial access to recreational services. Educational level was used as a predictor of potential knowledge of the service system (Snider, 1980). Case management and coordinative services are designed to facilitate use of resources by older individuals.…”

“…In addition, an elderly person's knowledge of community health and social service agencies is largely dependent on their education and past utilization of community health and social service agencies. This previous experience may, in turn, influence their utilization of appropriate services (Snider, 1980).…”

Understanding and Controlling Response Bias in Needs Assessment Studies

“…Because most past research on agency awareness has not controlled for agency awareness overclaiming, the issue of accuracy has not been addressed by prior researchers. Most previous studies, however, have reported a positive relationship between education and agency awareness (Calsyn and Roades 1993;Chapleski 1989;Krout 1983Krout , 1985Kushman and Freeman 1986;Snider 1980). Past researchers have not examined the impact of occupational status on agency awareness, but numerous studies have studied the effect of a related variable, income, on agency awareness.…”