To assess the demands of community-based health care service among 717 elderly / 中华流行病学杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>UNLABELLED</b>OBJECTIVE To understand the demands and influencing factors on the community-based health care service (CHS) among the elderly and to provide evidence of implementing health service for them</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Cluster sampling method was used on 717 persons aged 60 and above in Yanjiao Developing Area. A survey was carried out, using questionnaire and focus group discussion approaches.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Data showed that a two-week prevalence of diseases was 56.3% while the overall prevalence of chronic diseases was 92.1% with 70.0% of them suffering from more than two kinds of chronic diseases. The rates of ADL and IADL loss were 1.8% and 7.0% respectively with 37.0% of them sought medical consultation in the past two weeks. Major reason affecting the use of health service was low income. 57.7% of the elderly expressed their willingness of accepting CHS with the strongest demands as regular physical check-up, health education and consultation, specialized care services, home care service while major reasons hindering the acceptance of CHS could be referred to self-perception on good stamina and lack of awareness to CHS.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The demands of CHS in the elderly were greater than those in general population that called for CHS programs to be acceptable and relevant to meet the different needs.</p>