%0 Journal Article
%T Chronic disease profiles of caregivers of geriatric patients and attitudes and behaviors to their chronic diseases
%A Tar£¿k Eren Y£¿lmaz
%J -
%D 2019
%X Aim: In our study caregivers of geriatric home health care patients who registered in The Home Health Services Unit of Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital, University of Health Sciences with chronic disease states investigated for managing their chronic diseases and caregiver profile. Material and Method: This is a cross-sectional, descriptive, observational study. Caregivers of geriatric patients (65 yrs. and older) who registered in the Home Health Services Unit of Health Sciences University Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital and volunteered to participate were included. Our sample is the whole of our study universe. Suitable information about patients and caregivers obtained from patient files. In addition, a structured questionnaire, which search the status of caregivers, was prepared by the researchers in the academic councils of Department of Family Medicine. Information about caregivers was obtained from interviews in routine home health services using this questionnaire. Results: 350 caregivers determined and 213 of them agreed to participate in the study. The mean age of these patients was 58.2 ¡À 12.4 years (min 24, max 95 yrs.). 81% of the caregivers were family relatives, 13% were paid careers with foreign nationality and 6% were paid caregiver from Turkish nationality. 41% of them were university graduates, 23% were high school graduates, 31% were primary school graduates and 5% were not literate. Almost all caregivers were women. 51% of caregivers had at least one chronic disease (n = 109). The maximum number of chronic diseases was 5. Sixty-six had hypertension, 28 had diabetes mellitus, 21 had thyroid disease, 12 had coronary artery disease and 8 had cancer. 95% of patients with chronic disease were taking regular treatment; 77% said that they had regular medical checks, 36% of those who did not have medical checks regularly. Sixty percent of them said that they could not attend their controls because of caregiving. The average number of chronic diseases in patients who received care was 3.1 ¡À 1.3. When we looked at dependency of patients; 39% were fully dependent, 49% were half dependent and 12% were independent. All of the caregivers who were unable to take regular treatment cared fully dependent patients. 92% of caregivers who couldn¡¯t attain controls had fully or partially dependent patients. Conclusion: In our study, most of the caregivers are family member and half of them had at least one chronic disease. Over time, the caregivers who started this service could disrupt the control of their own diseases as the
%K Bak£¿m veren
%K evde sa£¿l£¿k hizmetleri
%K aile hekimli£¿i
%K geriatri
%U http://dergipark.org.tr/ortadogutipdergisi/issue/46899/495692