Hospital and emergency department visits among Medicare beneficiaries with dementia were far more frequent than for those without dementia, according to an article in Health Affairs.
Researchers analyzed data collected between 2000 and 2008 from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor's Institute for Social Research Health and Retirement Study.
Patients with dementia had a recorded inpatient stay during 26.7 percent of the time, while only 18.7 percent of those without the condition had been hospitalized during the same time period. ED visits had occurred in 34.5 percent of the population with dementia but in only 25.4 percent of the population without dementia.
The effect was not similar for Medicare beneficiaries in nursing homes, who experienced hospitalizations at higher overall rates that were equivalent between dementia and non-dementia patients.
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