Home health service utilization by Hispanic elderly immigrants: a longitudinal study.

Based on a longitudinal study of Hispanic elderly immigrants, factors associated with use of home health services (HHS) were examined. Interviews were conducted in a community study of 156 Hispanic elderly immigrants in 1983 and again in 1988 with 76 survivors using the Older Americans Resources and Services (OARS) questionnaire. Predisposing and illness level factors were significantly related to the use of HHS, however, enabling factors were not significant. A discriminant analysis indicated that a set of variables (gender, age, physical health, mental health, ADL function and Self Assessed Health) accounted for 54% of the variance. The strongest discriminators in use of home health services were age, ADL function and Self Assessed Health.