Study: Older dementia patients go to ER twice as often as other seniors

Older people with dementia seek care in the emergency room twice as often as their peers, a new analysis suggests — leading to what researchers call “potentially avoidable and harmful visits” for some patients.

The study, published July 24 in JAMA Neurology, examined data from the 2016-2019 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, which collects demographic and other information about a nationally representative sample of ER visits. About 1.4 million of the annual 20.4 million ER visits among adults over 65 involved patients with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, researchers found.