Turkish Journal of
GERIATRICS

Hacettepe Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Halk Sağlığı Anabilim Dalı, Ankara
Sağlık Bakanlığı Ankara İl Sağlık Müdürlüğü 8 Nolu AÇSP Merkezi, Ankara
Hacettepe Ãœniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi, Ankara The health problems of the elder people should be solved by a holistic health service approach, which includes prevention, early diagnosis and treatment and rehabilitation. This study aimed to determine the socio-demographic characteristics of people 65 years and older, the utilization of health services by the elder people and to contribute to raise the quality of health services which provided to the elder people. The target population was the people aged 65 and older in Anadolu district of Gülveren Health Centre Area. 84.3 percent of the elder people were reached during the survey. The data was collected by using face-to-face interview technique. 40.8 percent of the participant was man and 59.2 percent was female. 21.8 percent of the elder people declared their health status as “very good”, 64.1 percent as “good”, 79.5 percent as “not bad” and 34.7 percent as “bad”. The health status declared by elder people did not effect to use the helath services. 40.8 percent of the elder people contacted to a health institution during their last illness, 50 percent of the illness elder preferred to use the Gülveren Health Centre. The reasons for coming to Gülveren Health Centre are being the most closer health institution than the others and examining the patients is free of charge at the health centre. The most importent expeetations o the elderly people from the health centre are to have their prescsiptions witten espestally for retined from SSK and to have free drug supplements for wham without any social coverage Keywords : Elderly, health status, utilization of health services