Elderly families of South of Brazil in the Health Strategy.

Objective: to characterize families and health status of the elderly in the Family Health Strategy and to verify the association of family composition with sociodemographic characteristics and health of the elderly.

Method: population-based study with 215 families and 266 elderly, linked to the Family Health Strategy from a city of Rio Grande do Sul state.

Results: there was predominance of nuclear family composition, considered as the main source of informal support, families of female elderly (62.