RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Health And Poverty Among Elderly Persons: A Community-Oriented Primary Care Survey
JF The Journal of the American Board of Family
                Practice
JO J Am Board Fam Med
FD American Board of Family Medicine
SP 231
OP 239
DO 10.3122/jabfm.3.4.231
VO 3
IS 4
A1 James N. Kvale
A1 W.R. Gillanders
A1 Terry F. Buss
A1 C. Richard Hofstetter
A1 David Gemmel
YR 1990
UL http://www.jabfm.org/content/3/4/231.abstract
AB Providing health care for independent-living elderly persons is important, yet family physicians often lack accurate information about needs and access to care. The Community-Oriented Primary Care (COPC) approach and health status models from health services research provide a framework for assessing need and access to care. Personal interviews were conducted with 990 noninstitutionalized elderly persons in Youngstown, Ohio. Results showed that poverty, gender, and race were not strongly related to health status as measured by numbers of symptoms, functional status, or subjective health status. In addition, elderly persons had fewer health care needs and greater access to care than expected. Simple models of health status, need, and access do not seem to apply. The study shows the usefulness of COPC in planning health services; however, more effort is needed to refine measures of health status, need, and access.