for this study required approvals have been obtained from the ethics committee of clinical researches , and hospital administration of yznc yl university . the patients who died since 2008 were excluded from the study , and medical files of 2800 patients who received services from this unit were screened . the patients whose death was reported during the study period , patients temporarily confined to bed ( cases with bone fractures because of traffic accident or trauma , patients operated for various indications whose wounds were dressed or their injections were made ) , and completely cured patients who did not receive the services of the unit any more were excluded from the study , and demographic characteristics , and diseases of the remaining 991 patients were classified . the patients ( 226 female , and 139 male ) who received the services of this unit before the year 2014 were not included in the study . a total of 626 active patients who were visited by the staff of the unit at their home , and received health care services were included in the study . this was a retrospective and descriptive study which enrolled all patient groups who consulted to malatya state hospital home health care unit . all data were entered in a computerized system , then percent changes of each group were calculated based on total number of study participants , and separately for male , and female patients the study included active patients who had received services within the year 2014 . although , higher number of patients were included in our study , exclusion of the patients who were thought to be bedridden as understood from screening of patientsmedical files , but could nt receive the services of the unit is a limitation of our study . all data were entered in a computerized system , then percent changes of each group were calculated based on total number of study participants , and separately for male , and female patients although , higher number of patients were included in our study , exclusion of the patients who were thought to be bedridden as understood from screening of patientsmedical files , but could nt receive the services of the unit is a limitation of our study . a total of 626 ( female , n=379 , 60.5% , and male , n=247 ; 39.5% ) patients were included in the study . based on the age groups , number , and percentages of the female , and male patients are given in table 1 . patients aged 80 constituted the group with the highest number of patients ( n=236 ; 37.7% ) . the diseases seen in the patients who received health care services at home were prioritized , and classified as diseases , and disease groups which would confine the patients to bed . secondly , concomitant diseases were evaluated separately . in female patients cerebrovascular diseases ( cvds ) ( n=95 ; 25.0% ) , senility ( n=56 ; 14.8% ) , and alzheimer s disease ( n=50 ; 13.2% ) were detected in respective number , and percentage of female patients as indicated in parentheses . among male patients , cases with cvd ( n=54 ; 21.8% ) , operations with the indications of femoral fracture , or gonarthrosis ( n=28 ; 11.3% ) , patients with fractures caused by traumatic events or traffic accidents ( n=28 ; 11.3% ) , finally alzheimer s disease , and senility ( n=21 ; 8.5% ) were detected ( table 2 ) . although , the patients in the advanced age group were mostly confined to bed because of chronic diseases , in the group aged 49 years or younger , more frequently the patients with congenital anomalies , congenital diseases or patients who experienced traumatic events , and traffic accidents were confined to bed . majority of the young men who received services of the unit had fractures secondary to traumatic events or traffic accidents ( female 12 , and male 28 ) . number ( % ) of patients according to age groups diseases seen in patients who were benefiting from home health care service units elp : elephantiasis ; gb : gullain - barr syndrome ; chf : chronic renal failure ; chf : chronic heart failure ; copd : chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ; ldh : lumbar discal hernia ; mi : myocardial infarction ; mr : mentally retarded ; pad : peripheral artery disease ; sspe : subacute sclerosing panencephalitis ; tbc : tuberculosis ; ta : traffic accident . distribution ( % ) of cvd , senility , and alzheimer s disease seen in individuals benefiting from the home health care unit is seen in table 3 . cvd was most frequently seen in the age group of 70 - 79 years ( 43.0% ) , then in patients aged 80 and above ( 34% ) . female patients with left hemiplegia ( 52.6% ) were more numerous than those with right hemiplegia . however among men the rates of left , and right hemiplegia were equal ( 46.2% ) . senility as a cause of confinement to bed was seen mostly in patients aged 80 and over ( 83.1% ) . in 52.5% ( n=42 ) of the patients , as chronic disease , hypertension was detected in 16 ( 28.6% ) female , and 8 ( 38.0% ) male patients . alzheimer s disease was mostly seen in patients aged 80 , and over ( 64.8% ) . forty - four ( 65.0% ) patients had only alzheimer s disease without any other chronic disease . distribution , and rates of cvd , senility , and alzheimer s disease among age groups seen in patients who were benefiting from home health care servives as asecondary chronic diseases , hypertension ( n=196 ; 31.3% ) , and diabetes mellitus ( n=86 ; 13.7% ) were seen . decubitus ulcer which is the most important health problem in bedridden patients was seen in 48 ( 7.6% ) patients . a study performed in eskiehir , revealed that people in need of care constituted 3.7% of the total population of the city . while people aged above 65 , comprised 53.2% of the total population of the city . in a study performed both in 1997 , and 2004 in austria , median age of the male , and female population benefiting from health care units in the years 1997 , and 2004 was detected as 72 vs. 76 , and 79 vs 81 years , respectively . in the year 2011 , in the study performed by home health care service unit of ordu university training and research hospital most frequently ( 38.4% ) patients aged 80 years , and above were detected . most of our study population were aged 80 , and above ( 37.7% ) . in a study performed in austria , female patient population ( 71.1% ) was indicated to be more numerous than male patients . similarly in a study performed by the home health care unit of a turkish public hospital , female patients were observedly higher ( 63.8% ) in number . in a study performed in ordu university training and research hospital , male patient population was reportedly more numerous ( 58.4% ) than female patients . in compliance with the other two studies mentioned above , in our study , although the number of male , and female patients in a study performed in the year 2011 in mamak district were nearly the same to what we detected in our study , number of patients in age groups differred . in this study the highest number of patients were reported in the 45 - 60 age group , then in the 35 - 40 age group . in patients receiving health services at home , more frequently cardiac , orthopedic , respiratory problems , and dm based on the data provided by local health authority of eskiehir , alzheimer s disease , dementia , and cerebrovascular diseases were reported in 50% of those receivimg health care at home . in a study conducted in austria , mostly central nervous system ( cns ) , similar outcomes have been also revealed in a study performed in ordu university training and research hospital . in their study cns - related cvd , alzheimer s diseases , operated femoral fracture , gonarthrosis , osteoporosis , and chf consisted 4 of 5 most frequently seen diseases . our study differs from others , in that senility was the most frequently seen condition after cvd . cvd is responsible for 14.5% , and 15.7% of the mortalities among men , and women , respectively . cvd is the most important disease which causes restriction of mobility in individuals above 40 years of age . since life span of women is longer , they appear to have higher risk of dying from an ischemic disease , and risk of stroke during their life time [ 15 , 16 , 17 ] . the outcomes of our study are compatible with these findings . beginning from the age group of 50 - 59 , its incidence increased in both genders . only one female , and one male patient in men it is most often seen in the age group of 70 - 79 years , while its incidence decreased almost 50 percent . in women five female patients aged above 90 , were followed up with the diagnosis of cvd , while none of our male patients were older than 90 years of age . alzheimer s disease increases with age . in a study performed with patients above 50 years of age prevalence of alzheimner s disease alzheimer s disease was found in 30.4% of the people aged 75 years , and above . in our investigation , alzheimer s disease ranked third among our patients . in our study , the rates of alzheimer s disease increased with age . alzheimer s disease was mostly seen in patients aged 80 , and above . in both genders , number of patients aged 80 , and above were significantly higher than those seen in younger patients . decubitus ulcer increases mortality , and morbidity , and decreases quality of life of the patients . decubitus ulcer was reported in 12.0% of the patients receiving health care services at home . however in our study lesser number ( 7.6% ) of our patients had decubitus ulcer . because of frequent provision of health care services to these patients , they have a special place as for home health care units . the staff of the home health care unit visit these patients at their homes , and dress their wounds every other day which have an important place in the unit s workload not mentioning economic burden as for the utilization of material , cost of drugs used , and wound care expenditures . therefore , as an important issue , health care service units should train the patient s household about applications against occurrence of decubitus ulcer . in this study where demographic characteristics , and diseases seen in the patients who were receiving home care were evaluated , generally outcomes similar to those seen in other studies have been obtained . in our study , the need for health care services at home is especially crucial for bedridden patients with cardiovascular diseases , senility , alzheimer s disease , and musculoskeletal diseases . structuring home health care service units , and training their staff so as to ensure treatment , and rehabilitation of these patients who need long - term care can be realized at their home environment will be an appropriate approach .
objective : home health care unit a unit provides health services for elderly , bedridden and individuals with chronic diseases at home along within the frame of the diagnosis , and treatments of the relevant experts . therefore , it is intended to reduce the probable physical and emotional burden related to the patient that arise by commuting to the hospital , to increase the number of empty beds for other patients and to improve the living standard by reducing the risk of hospital infection . in this study , the demographic characteristics of housebound patients , their general disease and its relationship with age and gender was investigated.methods:the following study was performed on 626 active patients of malatya state hospital home health care unit from january to november 2014 . 
 data were analyzed using microsoft excel program.results:the study included 60.5% ( n=379 ) female and 39.5% ( n=247 ) male patients . 
 the highest group consisted of patients with 80 years or above 37.7% ( n=236 ) . 
 cerebrovascular disease ( cvd ) ( n=95 ; 25.0% ) , senility ( n=56 ; 14.8% ) and alzheimer s disease ( n=50 ; 13.2% ) were commonly observed in women . 
 male patients had cvd ( n=54 ; 21.8% ) , femur fracture or gonarthrosis which required surgery ( n=28 ; 11.3% ) , and fracture due to trauma or traffc accidents ( n=28 ; 11.3% ) , senility and alzheimer s disease ( n=218.5%).conclusion : in recent years home health care units became even more important after the gradual increase in the elderly population and injuries due to accidents . 
 this study can help to provide home health care units in a more effcient manner by educating the staff and relatives who take care of the patients .