Access to paid in-home assistance among disabled elderly people: do Latinos differ from non-Latino whites?
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to compare the national prevalences and predictors of paid in-home functional assistance among disabled Latino and non-Latino elderly people who receive such assistance.


METHODS
Data were derived from the 1988 wave of the National Center for Health Statistics Longitudinal Study on Aging and the 1988 Commonwealth Fund Commission Survey of Elderly Hispanics. Logistic regression was used to model paid care use and to calculate estimated probabilities of such use.


RESULTS
Among Latino and non-Latino Whites 74 years of age and older who received functional assistance, similar proportions used paid assistance. Predictors of paid care coincided with established models for non-Latino Whites only. Disabled Latinos had a lower estimated probability of using paid assistance when they were highly disabled and socially isolated but had a higher estimated probability when their children lived nearby.


CONCLUSIONS
The effects of disability and social support differ among non-Latino White and Latino elderly people. Latino elderly people with high anticipated needs obtain less paid assistance than similar non-Latino Whites. In addition to a reduction in financial barriers, improving access to long-term care services requires addressing this diversity in service use patterns.
Wallace
S P
SP
Department of Community Health Sciences, UCLA School of Public Health 90024-1772, USA.
Levy-Storms
L
L
Ferguson
L R
LR
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D016017:Odds Ratio; D014481:United States; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data