This study was carried out on a representative sample of elderly people living at home (n = 300), in intermediate faculties (n = 271) and nursing homes (n = 774) from metropolitan, urban and rural areas in the Province of Quebec (Canada) in order to: 1) determine the level of disabilities and resources involved in the care of elderly people living at home or in institutional settings; 2) estimate the costs (public, private, voluntary) of these resources; 3) compare the costs according to the level of disability; and 4) predict the costs associated with disabilities. Results show that there were significant differences but large overlap in the disability level, cognitive status and nursing care needed and received between participants from the three settings. The disability score explained 85 per cent of the variance in nursing care time and 55 per cent (home), 15 per cent (intermediate facilities) and 68 per cent (nursing homes) of the variance in the cost. Nursing care was responsible for most of the cost in all settings. The total societal cost of home care was greater than the cost of intermediate facilities for elderly participants with a disability score over 7.4 and greater even than the cost of nursing homes for a score over 38.7.

A study ofolder adults in Israel (n = 170) examined the relationship of activity level and social network characteristics to respondents' subjective well-being, controlling for background socio-demographic characteristics and extent of physical disability. Factor analysis derived three activity factors corresponding to formal, informal and solitary activity. A hierarchical regression procedure revealed that physical disability accounted for 40 per cent of the variance in the well-being measure. Extent of informal activity explained another 3 percent of the variance, but was outweighed in the final model by the addition of a social network factor – degree of network supportiveness (R2 =.48). The findings suggest that it is the social network aspect of activity that makes a difference in older persons' subjective well-being, rather than the effect of activity per se.