Living arrangement degli anziani e risorse familiari. Un'analisi in contesto urbano. Living arrangement among older people living in an urban context. The role of social network

The goal of this paper is twofold: i) describing the living arrangements of people aged 70 and more living in a town of the North-East of Italy; ii) examining the influence of the social and family networks on those living arrangements. Results show that the strategy is to leave older people in the own homes as long as possible, eventually providing care and help from the outside. A large family network reduces the risk of the old person living alone only if the health conditions become bad. Family network, instead, is highly protective with respect to institutionalization.