RESUMO
To assess whether older adults who spend a night in emergency departments (ED) awaiting admission are at increased risk of mortality. This was a retrospective review of a multipurpose cohort that recruited all patients ≥ 75 years who visited ED and were admitted to hospital on April 1 to 7, 2019, at 52 EDs across Spain. Study groups were: patients staying in ED from midnight until 8:00 a.m. (ED group) and patients admitted to a ward before midnight (ward group). The primary endpoint was in-hospital mortality, truncated at 30 days, and secondary outcomes assessed length of stay for the index episode. The sample comprised 3,243 patients (median [IQR] age, 85 [81-90] years; 53% women), with 1,096 (34%) in the ED group and 2,147 (66%) in the ward group. In-hospital mortality for patients spending the night in the ED the ED group was 10.7% and 9.5% for patients transferred to a ward bed before midnight the ward group (adjusted OR: 1.12, 95%CI: 0.80-1.58). Sensitivity analyses rendered similar results (ORs ranged 1.06-1.13). Interaction was only detected for academic/non-academic hospitals (p < 0.001), with increased mortality risk for the latter (1.01, 0.33-3.09 vs 2.86, 1.30-6.28). There were no differences in prolonged hospitalization (> 7 days), with adjusted OR of 1.16 (0.94-1.43) and 1.15 (0.94-1.42) depending on whether time spent in the ED was or was not taken into consideration. No increased risk of in-hospital mortality or prolonged hospitalization was found in older patients waiting overnight in the ED for admission. Nonetheless, all estimations suggest a potential harmful effect of staying overnight, especially if a proper bedroom and hospitalist ward bed and hospitalized care are not provided.
RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether the type of household is associated with prognosis at one year in patients ≥65 years of age discharged after medical consultation requiring emergency department care. METHODS: Data from the Emergency Department and Elder Needs (EDEN) cohort were used. This retrospective cohort included all patients ≥65 years of age seen in 52 Spanish emergency departments over one week (April 1-7, 2019) in whom the type of household was recorded and categorized as living at home alone, with relatives, with professional caregivers, or in a nursing home. Patient demographic and other baseline characteristics and management during the index emergency department episode were recorded and used to adjust the following 1-year outcomes: all-cause mortality, hospitalization and emergency department revisit. Associations between type of household and outcomes are expressed as adjusted hazard ratios with 95% confidence intervals using living alone as the reference category. RESULTS: 13,442 patients with a median age of 79 years (interquartile range 72-86) were included; 56% were women, 12.2% of patients lived alone, 74.9% with relatives, 3.9% with a professional caregiver, and 9.1% in a nursing home. During the year following discharge, the mortality rate was 14.0%, the hospitalization rate 29.7%, and the emergency department revisit rate 59.3%. In the fully adjusted model, the risk of death was associated only with living in a nursing home (hazard ratio 1.366 (1.101-1.695)). On the other hand, the risk of hospitalization was lower in individuals living in nursing homes (hazard ratio 0.783 [0.676-0.907]) and at home with relatives (hazard ratio 0.897 [0.810-0.992]), while the risk of emergency department revisit was lower in individuals living in nursing homes (hazard ratio 0.826 [0.742-0.920]) or at home with caregivers (hazard ratio 0.856 [0.750-0.976]). CONCLUSION: The type of household was modestly associated with the one-year prognosis of patients ≥65 years of age discharged after attendance at an emergency department. Living in a nursing home is associated with an increased risk of death but a decreased risk of rehospitalization or emergency department revisit, while living at home with relatives or professional caregivers is associated only with a decreased risk of hospitalization and emergency department revisit, respectively.
