Sociodemographic and Clinical Characteristics of the Patients Registered by Home Care Services Unit of A State Hospital

Abstract

Aim: To determine the quality of home care given and the socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of patients registered by home care services. Materials and methods : In this descriptive study, medical records of 800 patients registered by home care services of Kecioren Training and Research Hospital were analyzed retrospectively. Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of the patients and types of services they received were evaluated. The data were analyzed by SPSS statistical software. Numerical variables were expressed as mean ± standard deviations and categorical variables as numbers and percentages (n, %). Results: Of the 800 patients 37.3% (n=297) were male and 62.7% (n=503) were female. Mean age of the patients was 75.6±15.3 years. Mean age of the males and females were 70.8±17.6 and 78.4±12.9 years, respectively and 2.9% (n=23) of them had no health insurance. Mean number of diseases was 2.6±1.3 and 41.4% (n=331) of patients had hypertension and 27.3% (n=218) had various neurological diseases such as Alzheimer, Parkinson, traumatic sequels and 13% (n=104) had decubitus ulcers. The leading cause of home care visit request was desire to have a physical examination with a rate of 41.4% (n=331). Conclusion: Patients receiving home care services had various types of disease patterns and disabilities. Therefore, expectations about home care services were vary by patients and their family members.