Patterns and determinants of social service utilization: comparison of the childless elderly and elderly parents living with or apart from their children.

Approximately one out of five elderly persons are childless. In the absence of children who provide important emotional and instrumental cohort , are childless elderly more likely to use social services than are elderly parents? Analysis of data from the Longitudinal Survey of Aging shows that the childless elderly were more likely to say that they lacked informal instrumental support at times of illness than were the elderly parents. Nevertheless, the childless were no more likely to use social services than were the elderly parents. Strategies to improve the childless elderly's social service use are recommended.