ABSTRACT
Non-communicable disease, long-term care and the basic health and social support required by people as they grow frailer with old age are still very limited in many parts of the world. The delivery of basic health care to most older people occurs informally within the community. Intra-household and inter-household transfers between related or proximate individuals constitute a basic form of social security in developing countries. This chapter considers the continuing role of the family, and the pressures exerted on such kin support, arising from demographic change, economic development and long-term crises such as poverty, famine and Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS). Most research focuses on the support provided by adult children to elderly parents, while failing to recognise the continuation of downward transfers from parent to child even in old age. Hungary relies on co-residence of older people with their married children to solve problems of old age care.
