OBJECTIVE Prior studies have extensively examined the reciprocal relation between disability and depressive symptoms in late life, but little is known about whether informal care attenuates the reciprocal relation over time. This study examined whether disability and depressive symptoms mobilize informal care and whether informal care, once mobilized, protects older adults against the progressi...

CONTEXT Efforts to control medical expenses by emphasizing primary care and limiting specialty care may influence how physicians use informal or "curbside" consultation. OBJECTIVE To understand physicians' use of and beliefs about informal consultation. DESIGN Survey mailed in July 1997. PARTICIPANTS Of a random sample of Massachusetts general internists, pediatricians, cardiologists, ort...

BACKGROUND: As downsizing of institutional care continues, patients discharged are likely to have more severe mental illnesses, and to have experienced longer tenures within institutions than patients who have been discharged in the past. As greater numbers of patients are removed from mental hospitals, the objective burden experienced by informal care-givers may increase, particularly if forma...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this paper is to analyse the utilization of formal and informal home care among older patients with cancer (OCP) and to compare this with middle-aged patients with cancer (MCP) and older patients without cancer (ONC). Additionally, we examined predictors of transitions towards formal care one year after a cancer diagnosis. METHODS OCP and MCP had to be recruited with...