Adult day care is increasingly being offered as an alternative to institutionalization. However, this alternative is not suitable for nor is it available to all elderly. There is need to determine if elderly users of these services have distinguishable characteristics from those who do not. This study evaluates 35 impaired elderly day care clients using an enlarged version of the Duke Older American's Resources and Services (OARS) Functional Assessment instrument and compares them with 93 impaired persons taken from a random sample of community elderly measured with the same instrument. Multiple discriminant analysis is used to determine if factors exist which predict use of adult day care facilities. Results show three main domains distinguish day care participation, social resources, economic resources, and mental health. Persons participating in day care are more likely to be younger, to live with other people, to have more income, and to have fewer emotional disturbances. They are also more likely to be disoriented, but to be in better overall physical health than elderly persons who don't use day care. The findings suggest that day care clients are more often labeled as dependent by their families than are community elderly. (Author/BH)