An overview of in-home care for older people in Portugal: an empirical study about the customers.

Background: The Portuguese in-home care services have never been adequately studied or identified. This is because of the lack of classification of variables related to the care receiver and to the demographic and organizational context in which it is inserted.

Methods: The 126 organizations in the central region of Portugal were categorized into four groups depending on whether they were located in a rural or urban environment and on whether they were large or small organizations.