Background: In Vietnam, the majority of the aged live in rural areas with low income so they do not have access to health care and health information. Nursing home or health care centers are popular in the world, especially in developed countries, but in Vietnam, these models are quite new and not widely known. This study was conducted to understand the elderly's knowledge of health care models and the reason why they choose this nursing center as a basis to contribute to improving the efficiency in health care for the elderly.

Methods:  A cross - sectional study included all participants who were living in Dien Hong nursing home, Ha Dong District, Hanoi, Vietnam from January to March 2017. All participants would be interviewed through an available structure questionnaire.

Results: 56.8% of participants were female. In addition to the hospital, most elderly people know about some health care models, especially the nursing home (88.1%) and home care service (35.7%). The biggest reason why senior citizens came to nursing home is their children do not have time to care (63.6%) or they need to monitor and treat chronic diseases (59.1%). About disease patterns: the aged here mainly suffer from diseases: hypertension (54.6%), diabetes (20.5%) and stroke (29.6%) have been doctor diagnose. Good care conditions, equipment and qualifications are the reason why 77.3% of the elderly and families choose Dien Hong nursing home.

Conclusion:  Most of the elderly appreciated Dien Hong nursing home. It is necessary to expand the model and expand the number of similar aged nursing homes to serve the needs of the aged at present in Vietnam.