Besides the professional health and elderly care also provision of informal care is extensive to elderly. The aim was to describe and compare elderly people living at home and in special accommodation receiving informal and formal care or formal care only, with regard to functional ability and health complaints. Data was drawn from elderly people living in the southern part of Sweden (n=1963). Data covered the ”ADL-staircase” (Hulter-Asberg 1989) to measure Activity in Daily Living and cognitive functional ability (Berger 1980).

Elderly living in special accommodation were older (mean age 85) than those living at home (mean age 82, p <0,001) and more often women (71 % and 66 % respectively, p <0,015). Informal care with regard to PADL and IADL were more common among those living at home than in special accommodation (PADL 24 % and 3 %, p <0,001; concerning IADL 64 % and 11 %, p <0,001). Mostly children gave informal help in IADL and the spouse in PADL, 33 % and 14 % respectively. Elderly at home with informal and formal care had significantly higher extent of walking problems, urinary incontinence and slow healing wounds than those with only formal care (p <0,043 and <0,001). Having informal care at home was associated with dependence for shopping food, transportation, and activities in social life, but also with urinary incontinence. Formal care only at home was associated with dependency in cleaning and bathing as well as faeces incontinence.