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HOME HEALTH AND HOSPICE CARE
An increasing number
of individuals are receiving health care at home or community-based
settings rather than in institutions.
In 2000, 1,355,300 Americans received home health care
services. Of these, females comprised 877,900 (64.8 percent)
of recipients.
The majority of women receiving home health care were aged
65 years or older (76.1 percent). Women aged 85 and older
received 25.6 percent of home health care, followed by
women between the ages of 75-79 (18.4 percent).
In 2000,
73.2 percent of female and 78.3 percent of male home
health care patients received skilled nursing services.
Additional services commonly provided to home health
patients
include personal care, physical therapy, and homemaker
household services (provided to 36.9 percent, 26.7 percent,
and 26.5
percent of female home health patients, respectively).
Increasing
numbers of women and men are turning to hospice care
to meet their end-of-life needs. Between 1992 and
2000, the number of hospice care patients increased
from 52,000
to 105,500. Women narrowly outnumbered men in the number
of hospice care patients, comprising 53.5 percent of
patients in 1992 and 57.4 percent of patients in 2000.
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