Seeking Health Care from New Resources.

Middle-aged and elderly individuals using health care facilities from new resources provided information on the interpersonal network they employed in reaching such decisions. Specifically, we examined factors affecting the networks employed, their composition, the quality of ties that characterized the interaction within networks, and the effect that such networks had on decisions reached. The findings modify and extend earlier inquiries that focus on lay-referral systems and personal-influence networks as these relate to decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]