Participation in senior citizen organizations and the use of social and health

This paper presents the results of a study on the relationships between soc ial participation and use of services. The hypotheses predicted that member s of groups with high degrees of participation, cohesion, or participation and cohesion are likely to behave in a more homogeneous manner toward the u se of services than members of groups having the opposite characteristics. The hypotheses were tested by doing multiple regressions on the number of s ervice agencies contacted, preventive medical consultations and curative me dical consultations. One of the hypotheses was corroborated by a major find ing: being a member of a group with a high degree of participation and a hi gh degree of cohesion remains positively correlated to curative medical con sultations even when control variables like psychological well-being and pe rceived health have been considered. This result suggests that it could be possible to influence the use of services by older persons who are members of peer groups in dealing with the internal dynamics of these groups.