Older persons are more likely to get physical checkups and overutilize the health care system for minor complaints, but are little different from the younger in underutilization for conditions which should receive a doctor's attention. There is a need to help the elderly sort out symptoms requiring attention. (Author)

Social and health service utilization have been the subject of numerous studies, but most have examined service utilization from the perspective of the type of service delivered to older adults. To determine the factors that predict overall utilization of services, data that had been collected in 1975 for the General Accounting Offices' survey of…