Researchers have argued that the aggregation of
community-based services assumes that all of these
services have the same predictors, a questionable
assumption given the diversity of available community-
based care (Bass et al., 1992; Kane, 1988). Other
studies have demonstrated that disaggregating services
and examining them individually reveals differences
in the patterns of service use that are not
apparent when different types of services are combinedcombined
(Diwan & Coulton, 1994). It is evident that frail
older people use home care services in different
combinations and amounts. It is these facets of the
use of home care services that are the focus of this
article.