Pharmacy Daily | Dementia ups hospital rates

CITIZENS of New South Wales who suffer from dementia are more likely to end up in hospital than those who do not suffer the debilitating disease. The finding comes out of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s latest report which examined the characteristics of the 252,700 people aged 50 years and over who had at least one night in a NSW public hospital in 2006-07. According to the findings, 8% of these patients (20,800 people) had dementia, whilst around 26% of people with dementia aged 50 and over in NSW were found to have had at least one overnight stay in hospital that ended in 2006-07. This finding compares with 12% of people aged 50 and over without dementia. The report also noted that hospital patients with dementia were more likely to have had more than one multiple-day hospital stay in a 12-month period than patients without dementia (62% and 43% respectively), and that these stays were also generally longer than for patients without dementia (average of 18 days compared to 9 days). Interestingly, admission to hospital due to non-dementia mental and behavioural disorders or conditions of the nervous system was more common among people with dementia than those without (14% compared with 5%), whilst people with dementia were also more likely to be admitted because of injury or poisoning (14% compared with 11%. “A lower proportion of patients with dementia than those without dementia returned to living in the community on discharge -59% compared with 88%,” said AIHW spokesperson Brent Diverty. To access the report CLICK HERE.

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