Research Project: Why do older people seek emergency care? Causes, circumstances and explanations
Project leader
Lena Dahlberg Pär Schön, Aging Research Center Karolinska Institutet & Stockholms universitet
Project Members
Anna Ehrenberg Mahwish Naseer Johan Fastbom, Aging Research Center Karolinska Institutet & Stockholms universitet Katarina Göransson, Karolinska Sjukhuset Lennarth Johansson, Aging Research Center Karolinska Institutet & Stockholms universitet Mats Thorslund, Aging Research Center Karolinska Institutet & Stockholms universitet
Project Period
-
Project Status
Completed
Description
In recent years, there have been considerable reductions in institutional care for older people in Sweden, driven by cost containment measures and by an ‘ageing in place’ policy. This means that an increasing proportion of frail older people are dependent on help in their own homes.
A growing number of older people are seeking care at emergency departments (ED). The ED at hospital is the only care provider within the health and social care systems that is available around the clock. However, ED visits are stressful for frail older persons, and there are also indications that different kind of care needs could have been prevented or taken care of in outpatient care, that is, indications of dysfunctions in other parts of the health and social care system.
So, who are the older people seeking ED care? And why do they seek such care? The overall aim of this project is to study older people’s (80+) pathways to ED care. We will study causes, reasons and underlying mechanisms behind older people’s frequent ED visits.
To date, research on ED care has primarily followed patients after the contact with ED, and when admitted, looking prospectively at what happens after discharge from hospital. Less attention has been paid to what happens before arrival to the ED. Consequently, very little is known about causes and reasons behind the roughly 1 million ED visits by older people annually in Sweden.
A contributing reason for the lack of knowledge on older people’s ED visits is that no single database can provide the information required. In this project, a combination of data from different registers will be utilised. In addition, we will interview older patients in two EDs. The interviews will provide detailed information on what older people themselves see as the reasons for the ED visit, what actions that have been taken within the health care system prior to the ED visit, and how older people have experienced their previous contacts with the care system.
Keywords
akutsjukvård; äldre; omsorg; , emergency care; older people; care
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