Home care services can be provided as an alternative to institutional care to people, in case of their demand, who need care because of aging and chronic diseases. Structured home care service in health system does not exist in Turkey. Relatives try to provide care at home to those people. In this cross-sectional study, household was selected as a sampling unit, determining prevalence of home care at the households and gathering some information about home care in Çankaya district of Ankara was intended. It was found that in one-month period before this study was carried out, home care services were provided at 8.7% of the households in Çankaya district. 62.5% of people who received home care service were women, 15.3% of them were belonging to 65-74 age group; 31.7% of those were illiterate and 12.5% had no social and health insurance. Among people, 15.4% were receiving home care after surgical operation, 15.4% were receiving care because of stroke and cerebrovascular diseases and 9.6% were cancer patients. 81.7% of adults who were taken care at home were found to be dependent at different levels while performing daily living activities, the most common treatment method was detected as oral medication (81.4%). These people were in need of preventive, curative and rehabilitative and supportive services. A home care service model, which takes into consideration the social characteristics of the country, should be developed at this district where there is a large elderly population.
Key words: Home care, prevalence Article Language: Turkish English
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