The Andersen model of health servic

The Andersen model of health services utilization, which relates use of service to
predisposing, enabling, and needfactors, has not often been applied to an elderly
population. In this study, thefactors of the Andersen model were used prospectively
to predict utilization for a population sample of 1,317 elderly persons. Taken
alone, the NEED construct was the most important single predictor of use of
physician services, hospitalizations, ambulatory care, and home care. PREDISPOSINGfactors
were better predictors of the use of dental services. Some of the
variables studied were not related to utilization in the direction that would have
been predictedfrom previous studies on general populations. Multivariate analyses
demonstrated that the three constructs should be applied simultaneously when
predicting use of services. These findings can be applied to the specific task of
planning services for older people