Hospital admissions, age, and death: retrospective cohort study.
OBJECTIVE
Ageing of the population brings the possibility of increased burdens for acute hospital services because of the marked increase in many common diseases with age. We aimed to examine the relation between age and use of acute services in hospitals in the period before death in a national sample of deaths in hospital.


METHODS
Retrospective cohort analysis of English hospital episode statistics database.


METHODS
All NHS hospitals in England.


METHODS
All post-neonatal deaths occurring in English NHS hospitals during financial year 1999-2000, with episodes of care in the previous three years determined through matching on sex, date of birth, and postcode.


METHODS
Total bed days, mean and median length of stay.


RESULTS
253 799 in-hospital deaths were identified, representing about 45% of all deaths occurring in 1999-2000. Patients who died in hospital spent a median of 23 days in hospital in the three years before death; the median rose with age up to 45 years, but was fairly stable for ages 45 and above. The number of admissions to NHS hospitals in the three years before death averaged 3.6; this peaked at 10.4 in patients aged 5-9 years and decreased with age to 2.2 in those aged 85 and over.


CONCLUSIONS
The average number of bed days spent in hospital in the period before death does not increase with increasing age.
Dixon
Tracy
T
Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 2PR.
Shaw
Mary
M
Frankel
Stephen
S
Ebrahim
Shah
S
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001509:Bed Occupancy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004739:England / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies