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 % were male and 62.7 % were female. Mean age of the
patients was 75.6±15.3. Mean age of the males and females were 70.8±17.6 and 78.4±12.9,
respectively and 2.9 % of them had no health insurance. Mean number of diseases was
2.6±1.3 and 41.4% of patients had hypertension and 27.3% had various neurological diseases
such as Alzheimer, Parkinson, traumatic sequels, 13% had decubitus ulcers. The leading
cause of home care visit request of the patients was to have a physical examination.
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.

Key words: home care service, patients, clinical characteristics