This study identifies different family arrangements and describes the family support network for elderly who live in the Brazilian countryside. This transverse study was accomplished with thirty-six elderly through domicile interviews. Study results show a greater number of women (80.6%) among the elderly living in good living conditions with good household income. The most common family arrangement found out was tri-generational (50%), in which these elderly, their children, and their grandchildren all live together. The study observed a two-way process in informal transfers among these elderly, heads of the family, and other relatives living with the elderly. In families where the elderly was not the head of the household, the son usually takes up this role. In these families, the elderly receive more assistance than they provide, with the opposite occurring in families in which the elderly are the head. These results point toward the need for implementing new care actions for the rural elderly and their families which present difficulty in accessing Brazilian health care services.
Aging; Rural population; Family characteristics
