ABSTRACT
The most comprehensive and most widely used conceptual approach used in large-scale surveys of service utilization, is a behavioral model of health-services utilization developed by R. Andersen. Andersen's model, developed out of health research regarding use, was first applied to social services by Ward. Ward suggested that this model should be tested on the elderly, low income and minority populations, to determine if differential patterns of use exist. There are some similarities between the factors that motivate individuals to use health services, and those that motivate them to use social services. "The utilization of social services by Mexican-American elderly." A similar model has also been employed in analyzing the overall study data, from which the current sub-sample was extracted. The relative importance of predisposing, enabling and need factors, must be determined in order to estimate their effect on use.
