Assesses applied relevance of research on home care, reviewing literature on predictors of use of home care services, experience of receiving home care, and efficacy studies. Notes that efficacy studies have not concluded that home care is less costly or better for quality of life of older adults when compared with institutional care. (Author/NB)

Compares differences between elderly who use formal home care services and those who do not. Data revealed users as less healthy and less active and as receiving more assistance from both formal and informal sources. Suggests that formal and informal services complement rather than substitute for one another. (NRB)

Reviews existing gerontological literature, pointing to the prevailing familial, nonfamilial distinction, and presents an argument for drawing conceptual boundaries along peer, intergenerational lines. Explores the potential utility of this distinction by examining home care, to draw attention to a potentially useful distinction which has been…