A report on older people in hospitals, released today by the
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) examines the
reasons why older people go to hospital, the type of care they
receive and how long they stay.
Report co-author, Ms Rosemary Karmel said 'It is well-known that
as people get older they tend to have more health problems and so
are increasingly likely to use hospital services.
'However, limited information is readily available on why and
how older Australians use hospitals, or how their hospital use
varies with illness, age or sex. Knowledge of these issues is an
important aid for planning effective health services,' she
said.
The report, Older Australians in hospital, shows that on the
night of 30 June 2004, around 55,200 people spent the night in
hospital and over half (53% or 29,000 people) were aged 65 and
over.
In 2004-05, one-fifth of hospitalisations for both older men and
women were due to diseases of the circulatory system. Cancers and
tumours were the next most common cause (11%). Diseases of the
digestive and respiratory systems were also common causes of
hospitalisation (both around 10%), as were hospitalisations due to
injuries (9%).
Older people receive different types of care while in hospital,
including rehabilitation, palliative care, geriatric evaluation and
management, and maintenance care. The great majority of older
patients, however, are receiving acute care; in other words like
people of all ages they are in hospital for short-term treatment of
illness or injury.
Among people aged under 65, 98% received acute care; among those
aged 65-69 years of age, 94% of hospital episodes were for acute
care. Although the relative use of acute care decreases with age,
even for people aged 85 and over 85% of hospital episodes were for
acute care.
Older people generally have longer hospital stays than younger
people. This report demonstrates how length of stay varies with
illness and the overall type of care received. Older people
receiving acute care generally have shorter stays than patients
receiving other types of care. Among those in acute care, the
length of stay tends to increase with advanced old age, and tends
to be longer for women than men.
Looking at the diseases commonly causing hospitalisation, people
hospitalised for digestive diseases tend to have relatively short
stays (mean of 5.5 days) while those in hospital for treatment of
cancer or tumours commonly had longer stays (mean of 8.4 days).
'Older patients hospitalised for injury have relatively long
stays, averaging 9.3 days,' Ms Karmel said.
24 August 2007
Further information: Ms Jenny Hargreaves, AIHW,
tel. 02 6244 1121, mobile 0407 012 520
For media copies of the report: Publications
Officer, AIHW, tel. 02 6244 103
Availability: Check the AIHW Publications
Catalogue for availability of Older Australians in
hospital.