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Table 2 Hospital utilisation and presentations to emergency departments, decedents aged ≥70 years by age group (n = 34,566)

From: Health-services utilisation amongst older persons during the last year of life: a population-based study

 

All aged 70+

Aged 70–79

Aged 80–89

Aged 90+

n (%)

n (%)

n (%)

n (%)

 

n = 34,556

n = 10,252

n = 16,354

n = 7950

Hospital utilisation

  ≥ 1 hospital episode (%)

28,366 (82)

8977 (88)

13,686 (84)

5703 (72)

  - Excluding terminal episode (%)

22,968 (66)

7398 (72)

11,091 (68)

4479 (56)

 Median no. of episodes (IQR)

2 (1–3)

2 (1–4)

2 (1–3)

1 (0–2)

  > 3 hospital episodes

7223 (21%)

2995 (29%)

3350 (20%)

878 (11%)

 Median days in hospital per person (IQR)

17 (3–41)

22 (5–47)

18 (4–42)

10 (0–31)

  > 3 months in hospital (%)

2296 (7)

826 (8)

1095 (7)

375 (5)

 Had hospitalisation > 30 days (%)

7120 (21)

2236 (22)

3517 (22)

1367 (17)

 Spent time in ICU (%)

3239 (9)

1591 (16)

1413 (9)

235 (3)

  - Excluding terminal episode (%)

1443 (4)

695 (7)

627 (4)

119 (1)

 Restricted Palliative definitiona (%)

4488 (13)

2031 (20)

1936 (12)

521 (7)

 Broader Palliative definitionb (%)

7169 (21)

3102 (30)

3160 (19)

907 (11)

For cancer deaths:

n = 8615

n = 3932

n = 3769

n = 914

 At least one hospital episode (%)

8165 (95)

3792 (96)

3571 (95)

802 (88)

 Median no. of episodes (IQR)

3 (1–4)

3 (2–5)

2 (1–4)

2 (1–3)

 Median days in hospital (IQR)

29 (13–51)

31 (15–53)

29 (13–51)

22 (7–44)

 Spent time in ICU (%)

796 (9)

470 (12)

289 (8)

37 (4)

 Restricted Palliative definitiona (%)

3093 (36)

1610 (41)

1263 (34)

220 (24)

 Broader Palliative definitionb (%)

4673 (54)

2397 (61)

1936 (51)

340 (37)

For non-cancer deaths:

n = 25,941

n = 6320

n = 12,585

n = 7036

 At least one hospital episode (%)

20,201 (78)

5185 (82)

10,115 (80)

4901 (70)

 Median no. of episodes (IQR)

1 (1–3)

2 (1–3)

2 (1–3)

1 (0–2)

 Median days in hospital (IQR)

13 (1–36)

14 (2–42)

14 (2–38)

9 (0–29)

 Spent time in ICU (%)

2443 (9)

1121 (18)

1124 (9)

198 (3)

 Restricted Palliative definitiona (%)

1395 (5)

421 (7)

673 (5)

301 (4)

 Broader Palliative definitionb (%)

2496 (10)

705 (11)

1224 (10)

567 (8)

 Death recorded in inpatient setting (%)

18,437 (53)

6581 (64)

8770 (54)

3086 (39)

During terminal hospitalisationc

 Restricted Palliative care definition (%)

3455 (19)

1603 (24)

1488 (17)

364 (12)

 Broader Palliative care definition (%)

5485 (30)

2433 (37)

2399 (27)

653 (21)

 Spent time in ICU (%)

1951 (11)

985 (15)

844 (10)

122 (4)

ED presentationsd

n = 21,544

n = 6291

n = 10,269

n = 4984

At least one ED presentation (%)

17,117 (79)

5262 (84)

8241 (80)

3614 (73)

Median no. of presentations (IQR)

1 (1–3)

2 (1–3)

2 (1–3)

1 (0–2)

Ever referred to ED from an RACF (%)

3663 (17)

664 (11)

1854 (18)

1145 (23)

Dead on arrival at ED (%)

534 (2)

238 (4)

243 (2)

53 (1)

> 3 ED presentations (%)

3615 (17)

1278 (20)

1751 (17)

586 (12)

Amongst persons resident in RACF prior to death (n = 6872)

1674 (24)

402 (31)

888 (26)

384 (18)

  1. IQR interquartile range, ICU intensive care unit, ED emergency department, RACF residential aged care facility
  2. aIncludes persons recorded as undergoing review by a specialist palliative care team or who were admitted to one of five stand-alone hospice/inpatient palliative care facilities in NSW
  3. bPatients already captured in restricted definition, plus those referred to palliative care specialist teams or facilities, availing of a palliative care bed, and/or where service category/service-related group/diagnosis code indicated palliative care
  4. cPercent of terminal episodes; does not include hospital deaths identified from the NSW Cancer Registry only
  5. dFor people resident in the geographical area where recording of ED presentations was complete
  6. Note: All p-values from a chi-squared test for differences across age groups were < 0.0001
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BMC Geriatrics

ISSN: 1471-2318

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