Hospital Admissions Among Persons with Newly-diagnosed Dementia: First Israeli National Dementia Survey

Background: Dementia is a leading cause of disability worldwide and is associated with an increased utilization of healthcare services. We compared admission rates to public general hospitals in older people with newly-diagnosed dementia and the general Israeli older population without dementia.

Methods: Newly-diagnosed dementia was identified from electronic medical record databases of all health maintenance organizations in 2016. The definition of dementia was based on documented dementia diagnoses and/or the purchase of dementia medications. Hospitalization data for 2016 were provided by the National Hospital Discharges Database of the Ministry of Health Data Department. We estimated the percentage of the population who were hospitalized and the number of admissions for any reason per 1,000 individuals among people with newly-diagnosed dementia compared to the general Israeli population without dementia aged 65+.

Results: The incidence rate of dementia among people aged 65+ in 2016 was 1.3% (n=11,652). Compared to the general older population, the people with dementia were older (39% 85+ vs 13%) and had a higher proportion of females (61% vs 55%). A total of 4,725 newly-diagnosed older people with dementia were hospitalized, with 8,592 admissions. The age-standardized percentage of hospitalizations for people with dementia was 40.0%, compared to 26.4% for the general population. The age-standardized admission rate per 1,000 people was higher for people with dementia than for the general population (7.3 vs 4.6). The proportion of ≥2 admissions per year was higher in people with dementia than in the general population (47.9% vs. 41.4%). The average length of hospital stay was similar between the two groups.

Conclusion: Older people with dementia are a vulnerable patient group with higher utilization of healthcare services compared to those without dementia. Further studies should address factors associated with hospital admissions among people with dementia.