Hospital care
This section aims to provide a comprehensive picture of the impact of dementia on Australia’s hospital systems. It presents information on the number and characteristics of dementia-related hospitalisations between 2014–15 and 2023–24.
Each hospitalisation is assigned a principal diagnosis (the main reason for being admitted to hospital) and can also be assigned one or more additional diagnoses (conditions that impact the provision of care but are not the main reason for being admitted to hospital). Unless otherwise stated, this section focuses on hospitalisations with a principal diagnosis of dementia, or ‘hospitalisations due to dementia’. See Box 9.1 for key terms for hospitalisations for people with dementia.
Box 9.1: Key terms for hospitalisations related to dementia
The following terms are used to distinguish dementia hospitalisations:
- Hospitalisations due to dementia are hospitalisations where dementia was recorded as a principal diagnosis (the main reason for admission).
- Hospitalisations with dementia are hospitalisations where dementia was recorded as an additional diagnosis (where dementia impacted the hospitalisation but was not the main reason for admission), or where dementia was recorded as a ‘supplementary code’ (when dementia is identified as a chronic condition that is part of a patient’s current health status), and was not recorded as a principal diagnosis.
- Hospitalisations due to or with dementia are hospitalisations where dementia was recorded as a principal diagnosis and/or an additional diagnosis (where dementia impacted the hospitalisation but was not the main reason for admission), or where dementia was recorded as a ‘supplementary code’ (when dementia is identified as a chronic condition that is part of a patient’s current health status).
This section presents information on the number and characteristics of dementia-related episodes of admitted patient care (referred to as ‘hospitalisations’) between 2014–15 and 2023–24 from the National Hospital Morbidity Database. For further information on hospitals data, see the Technical notes.
It is important to note that the statistics presented here cannot be considered a full count of hospitalisations among people with dementia. Hospital records only include conditions that were significant in terms of treatment, investigations needed and resources used during the ‘episode of care’, or when chronic conditions that are part of a patient’s current health status are identified but don’t meet the inclusion criteria as a principal or additional diagnosis. This means that hospitalisations among people with mild dementia may be under-recorded because the early stages of dementia are less likely to affect the care provided in hospitals, or dementia may not be identified as a chronic condition that is part of a patient’s current health status.
Further, specific dementia types may be misclassified or simply attributed to Unspecified dementia by medical professionals in the hospital setting (Crowther et al. 2017). As a result, the number of hospitalisations for a specific dementia type may not be accurate. The most reliable data are likely to be for the most common types of dementia. Caution should be taken when interpreting hospital statistics by dementia type.
Linked data has been used to understand how the proportion of people with dementia who access hospital services varies by state/territory, remoteness areas and socioeconomic areas (AIHW 2023).
Work is underway to harmonise the collection of dementia type data in national datasets. See 5: Dementia type of the National Dementia Data Improvement Plan 2023–2034 for information on current developments and future activities aimed at improving dementia type data.
AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) (2023) Geographical variation in health service use by people living with dementia, AIHW, Australian Government, accessed 08 July 2025.
Crowther GCE, Bennett MI and Holmes JD (2017) How well are the diagnosis and symptoms of dementia recorded in older patients admitted to hospital? Age and Ageing, 46:1, doi:10.1093/ageing/afw169.