Revisits and frailty in older patients in the emergency department - a prospective observational multicenter study

Revisits and frailty in older patients in the emergency department - a prospective observational multicenter study

An increased number of revisits may signal that the immediate medical needs of patients seeking care at Emergency Departments (EDs) are not being met. The prevalence and characteristics of revisits to the EDs in Sweden among older patients, and its association to frailty, are unknown. We aimed to investigate the prevalence of ED revisits among patients over 65 years of age, living with or without frailty, and its association with rate of admission, and mortality; in the Swedish ED setting.

A total of 1835 patients made an index visit which were included, and out of those, 595 patients made a revisit within 90 days of the index visit. Patients living with frailty (CFS 5 to 8) were more likely to make a revisit to the ED at 8 to 30 days (17% vs. 11%, diff 6%, 95% CI 2–10%, p < 0.001) and at 31 to 90 days (19% vs. 12%, diff 7%, 95% CI 3–10%, p < 0.001) and be admitted to in-hospital care during their revisit (57% vs. 47%, diff 10%, 95% CI, 1–18%, p < 0.05), compared to patients living without frailty. Results also show that patients living with frailty had a higher overall mortality rate (17% vs. 5%, diff 12%, 95% CI 7–18%, p < 0.001). However, among patients living without frailty, making a revisit slightly increased the mortality rate compared to those who did not (5% vs. 2%, diff 3%, 95% CI 1–10%, p < 0.05).

Helena Johansson, Sara Fahlander, Erika Hörlin, Joakim Henricson, Samia Munir Ehrlington, Jens Wretborn & Daniel Wilhelms

https://bmcemergmed.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12873-024-01123-6

BMC Emergency Medicine

29 oktober 2024

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