ASSESSMENT OF MEDICAL HOME CARE NEEDS IN TURKISH POPULATION

Objective: to determine the home healthcare needs of the elderly so as to develop proper home healthcare services. methodology: this descriptive study was carried out in a county of kocaeli province-turkey. data was collected through a specially designed questionnaire through face to face interview technique. the data were analyzed by the computer using the spss package program. chi-square test was used for the statistical analysis. results: this study showed that 14.6% of the population had at least one diagnosed disease. among them, 1.8% was disabled, 4.1% was elderly and 1.1% of the households were in need of home care services. conclusions: home care needs were found to be low in this study. its main cause was that elderly population was not aware of the availability of such a service in the country.