Identifying profiles of service requirements in a non-institutionalized elderly population

Studies of service requirements for non-institutionalized elderly have tried, more or less successfully, to consider the effects of the elderly environment. Here, the environment of elderly is explicitly introduced in a secondary analysis of a data bank on service requirements of a sample of elderly. The environment of the elderly is described in terms of their housing environment: the resources available and the physical characteristics of the housing. A cluster analysis was done on these variables in order to identify the context in which the service requirements would have to be met. Twelve living arrangement groups were obtained. A cluster analysis of the service requirements was run on each of these living arrangement groups. The profile of services obtained was much the same for each of these groups. Four different profiles were identified. (1) Half of the sampled elderly were classified in the first profile as not requiring any services beyond those already available to middle-aged adults in the community. (2) The group of elderly people (9%) in need of all the services that can be prescribed in the study were also those living in the most congenial social and physical environment, which suggests that they had found a living arrangement which met their level of service needs. (3) One third of the sampled elderly needed help with heavy housework only. (4) Another 6% of the elderly needed help with many activities of daily living, but did not have access to help. The analysis of service requirements should always explicitly consider the resources available to the individual whose needs are assessed.