TY - JOUR
T1 - Clinical characteristics of patients with dementia in a local emergency clinic in Japan
AU - Tadokoro, Koh
AU - Sasaki, Ryo
AU - Wakutani, Yosuke
AU - Takao, Yoshiki
AU - Abe, Koji
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was partly supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) 17H0419619 (C), 15K0931607, 17H0419619 and 17K1082709, and by Grants-in-Aid from the Research Committees (R Kaji, K Toba and S Tsuji) from the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Japan Geriatrics Society
PY - 2018/9
Y1 - 2018/9
N2 - Aim: The present study aimed to clarify the clinical characteristics of patients with dementia in an emergency clinic. Methods: We retrospectively examined patients with dementia who visited the emergency clinic at Kurashiki Heisei Hospital, Okayama, Japan. Among 16 764 patients who visited our emergency clinic in the 3 years from 2014 to 2017, we focused on 2574 (15.4%) patients with dementia. Results: The mean age of patients with dementia was 84.9 ± 0.1 years, which was much older than the age of the total emergency patients (58.1 ± 0.2 years). The hospitalization rate was 54.9% for patients with dementia, which was more than double that of patients without dementia (23.3%; P <0.01), and was higher than that (44.3%) of patients who were aged ≥75 years without dementia. Infection (42.4%) and falls (20.9%) were the most common causes for emergency visits and hospitalization in the present study. Hospitalized patients with dementia spent a longer time in hospital for stroke (64.0 ± 5.3 days) and falls (51.9 ± 2.1 days) than those with infection, epilepsy, syncope, loss of consciousness, other causes (all P <0.01) or dehydration (P ≤ 0.05). Conclusions: Patients with dementia commonly attend our emergency clinic. These patients are older in age, have a higher hospitalization rate and have a longer hospitalization, especially due to stroke and falls, than patients without dementia. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2018; 18: 1383–1387.
AB - Aim: The present study aimed to clarify the clinical characteristics of patients with dementia in an emergency clinic. Methods: We retrospectively examined patients with dementia who visited the emergency clinic at Kurashiki Heisei Hospital, Okayama, Japan. Among 16 764 patients who visited our emergency clinic in the 3 years from 2014 to 2017, we focused on 2574 (15.4%) patients with dementia. Results: The mean age of patients with dementia was 84.9 ± 0.1 years, which was much older than the age of the total emergency patients (58.1 ± 0.2 years). The hospitalization rate was 54.9% for patients with dementia, which was more than double that of patients without dementia (23.3%; P <0.01), and was higher than that (44.3%) of patients who were aged ≥75 years without dementia. Infection (42.4%) and falls (20.9%) were the most common causes for emergency visits and hospitalization in the present study. Hospitalized patients with dementia spent a longer time in hospital for stroke (64.0 ± 5.3 days) and falls (51.9 ± 2.1 days) than those with infection, epilepsy, syncope, loss of consciousness, other causes (all P <0.01) or dehydration (P ≤ 0.05). Conclusions: Patients with dementia commonly attend our emergency clinic. These patients are older in age, have a higher hospitalization rate and have a longer hospitalization, especially due to stroke and falls, than patients without dementia. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2018; 18: 1383–1387.
KW - cause of visit
KW - clinical characteristics
KW - dementia
KW - emergency
KW - hospitalization
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85052631641&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85052631641&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/ggi.13496
DO - 10.1111/ggi.13496
M3 - Article
C2 - 30133081
AN - SCOPUS:85052631641
VL - 18
SP - 1383
EP - 1387
JO - Geriatrics and Gerontology International
JF - Geriatrics and Gerontology International
SN - 1447-0594
IS - 9
ER -