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Anticipated Choices Among Self-, Informal, and Formal Care by Older Canadians

The present research investigated factors related to the health care choices seniors anticipated making in response to hypothetical illness symptoms (e.g. rectal bleeding). After collecting demographic data, 80 seniors were presented various illness symptoms. Directly following each symptom they were asked whether they anticipated using self-, informal, or formal care to deal with the potential problem. In general, seniors with higher perceived health status anticipated using self-care. Being male and having a lower perceived health status was predictive of choosing informal care, whereas being female was predictive of anticipating using formal care. When individual symptoms were analyzed, additional predictors were identified. Judged seriousness of a symptom, experience with a symptom, and social network status were related to different anticipated health care choices for some, but not all, symptoms. Perhaps the most striking finding was the difference between males and females. Since health status between males and females was not significantly different, this difference in anticipated choice of care seemed to be linked to personal preference rather than health status per se.