People with Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia end up in the emergency room about 1.4 million times every year, according to recent findings from researchers at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Researchers used national data on emergency department visits among adults 65 years and older to conduct the study. The data was pulled from the 2016-19 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. Of more than 20.3 million annual ED visits among older adults, nearly 1.4 million were among patients with Alzheimer's and related dementias.
"While dementia is thought of as a cognitive or memory disorder, it is the behavioral aspects of the disease such as anxiety, agitation and sleep disturbances that can cause the most stress for caregivers and patients alike," Lauren Gerlach, DO, lead study author and geriatric psychiatrist at Michigan Medicine, said in a July 24 news release.
Three more findings from the study published in JAMA Neurology:
- Overall, dementia was found to account for nearly 7 percent of all ED visits among older adults.
- Dementia patients were twice as likely to seek emergency care for accidents and behavioral disturbances compared to patients in the same age range who did not have dementia. Researchers said behavioral issues being among the primary reasons for ER visits among dementia patients "may reflect caregiver difficulty in managing behaviors."
- Dementia patients in the ED were twice as likely to receive antipsychotic medications than other ED patients over the age of 65.
Researchers said the findings indicate the need to better support dementia patients' caregivers, which could ultimately help prevent emergency department visits. A proposed Medicare rule to reimburse healthcare teams for sessions that educate family caregivers on preventing and responding to distressing behaviors is one area researchers say could help prevent dementia-related crises.