Gender differences in community services knowledge, needs, and use among older African-Americans.

The primary purpose of this study was to compare knowledge of use of and need for community services between older (60 years of age and older) African-American men and women. A secondary purpose was to determine whether predisposing, enabling, and health-status factors could predict knowledge of need for, and use of specific community services among African-American women and men, 60 years of age and older Data were gleaned from a community-based random telephone survey of African-Americans (77 female and 23 male), 60 years of age and older, living in northeastern Ohio. Data generated from this study were analyzed using chi-square, and independent samples t-test, and multiple regression. Findings from this study suggested that women had higher levels of knowledge of use of and need for community-specific services than their male counterparts. Another finding from this study suggested that none of the identified predisposing, enabling, and health-status factors found in this study could plausibly explain knowledge of need for, or use of community-specific services.