Factors influencing health service knowledge among elderly Puerto Ricans.

An absence of relevant knowledge can produce inappropriate user patterns regarding available and suitable health services with detrimental consequences for health costs and mortality rates among others. This study of 466 non-institutionalized elderly Puerto Ricans is made up of ten questions: 8 background and 2 concerning knowledge of services. It is part of a larger study (173 questions) concerning the sociodemographic status of this population. The statistical tests of significance were Phi, Tau B and Cramer's V. The predisposing factor of zone of residence coupled with SES variables was a barrier to the obtaining of health information and equal access to all sectors of the health care system by the rural elderly. This has multiple social and public policy implications at the local and federal level.