title: A social systems model of nursing home use.
abstract: Causal modeling (path analysis) was applied to data from the 39 mental health catchment areas of Massachusetts to analyze the effects of sociocultural and health-resource variables on long-term-care utilization. The variables chosen explained 53 percent of the variance of long-term-care use by persons 60 and older: 41 percent was explained by the sociocultural variables and 12 percent by the health-resource variables. With data adjusted for age, the major determinant of long-term-care use was ethnicity: less long-term care was used in areas with more persons who were foreign-born or had a foreign-born parent. The effects of other health resources (supply of primary care physicians and use of mental and general (short-term) hospitals) were small and negative.
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002391:Catchment Area, Health; D005006:Ethnicity; D006801:Humans; D008134:Long-Term Care; D008404:Massachusetts; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009735:Nursing Homes / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors