Greater difficulty in these activities has important implications for the ability of the older person to maintain social connectedness and live independently.
Although the survey results did not include information about the home-based medical, personal and domestic care services older people were receiving, they did include information on the level and type of support provided by family members and, as expected, those in the frail subgroup were more likely to be receiving support across a variety of activities from family members. Those in the frail subgroup were more likely to be receiving assistance with transport, meals, shopping for groceries, haircuts, lawns and gardening, housework and house maintenance. They were more than twice as likely to be receiving support with transport from family members