Predicting Different Types of Service Use By the Elderly: The Strength of the Behavioral Model and the Value of Interaction Terms

Abstract

This study compared the ability of logistic regression models (with and without interaction terms) to predict the following four measures of service use: in-home, financial, community, and any service use. A representative sample of more than 4,000 older adults provided data for the study via telephone interviews. Policy and practice implications of the study results were (a) the behavioral model predicted any service use and in-home service use moderately well; need variables explained about half of the variance, with predisposing and enabling variables explaining the remainder; (b) the behavioral model did not explain much of the variance of the use of financial assistance or community services; and (c) although most of the interaction hypotheses in this study were not supported, interactions involving activities of daily living or instrumental activities of daily living needs with living situation and income helped explain which older adults were most likely to use services.