Characteristic patterns of emergency ambulance assignments for older adults compared with adults requiring emergency care at home in Sweden: a total population study

• Published in: BMC emergency medicine 2020-12, Vol.20 (1), p.94-94, Article 94
• Main Authors: Hjalmarsson, Anna, Holmberg, Mats, Asp, Margareta, Östlund, Gunnel, Nilsson, Kent W, Kerstis, Birgitta
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adults; Age; Ambulance; Assessments; Care Sciences; Caring Science; Characteristics; Chi-square test; Comparative analysis; Confidence intervals; Emergency medical care; Emergency medical services; Emergency medicine; Emergency response; Emergency vehicles; Gender; Hospitals; Life expectancy; Medical research; Medicine, Experimental; Nurses; Older adults; Older people; Population; Population studies; Regression analysis; Statistical analysis; Statistical tests; Trauma; Urban areas; Variance analysis; Vital signs; Vårdvetenskap; Womens health
• ISSN: 1471-227X; 1471-227X
• DOI: 10.1186/s12873-020-00387-y

Since the vast majority of older adults in Sweden live in their private homes throughout life, the emergency medical services need to adapt accordingly. Hence, we aimed to describe characteristic patterns of dyadic staffed emergency ambulance assignments for older adults aged > 70 years compared with adults aged 18-69 years requiring emergency care at home in Sweden. A descriptive retrospective study was performed using anonymized registry data from the emergency medical services in a region of Sweden during 2017-2018. One-sample χ test, one-way analysis of variance, and binary logistic regression models were used for investigating group differences. Variables for analysis were age, gender, clinical assessments, on-scene time, priority levels, result of response, and temporal patterns. Of all included emergency ambulance assignments (n = 28,533), 59.9% involved older adults, of which 53.8% were women. The probability for older adults to receive the highest priority was decreased for both dispatch (p