title: Hospital admissions, outpatient visits and healthcare costs of community-dwellers with Alzheimer's disease.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Detailed data on the health care service use of people with Alzheimer's disease (AD) are scarce.
  
  
  METHODS
  We assessed the health care service use of all community-dwelling persons with clinically verified AD diagnosis, residing in Finland on December 31, 2005 (n = 27,948) in comparison to matched cohort without AD. Hospitalization data during 2006-2009 were extracted from the National Hospital Discharge Register.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Comorbidity-adjusted incidence rate ratios; IRR (95% CI) were 1.25 (1.22-1.28) for inpatient admissions and 0.72 (0.68-0.77) for outpatient visits. People with AD had more general health care admissions (IRR, 95%CI 1.73, 1.67-1.80) but less admissions to specialty units 0.82 (0.79-0.85) than the non-AD group, with psychiatry being the only specialty with more admissions in the AD group. People with AD had 16 more hospital days/person-year.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It would be important to assess whether inpatient hospitalizations of AD patients could be decreased by better targeting of outpatient services and whether other conditions are underdiagnosed or undertreated among persons with AD.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Clinical Medicine - Neurology, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland. Electronic address: anna-maija.tolppanen@uef.fi.
authors.forename: Anna-Maija
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Tolppanen
authors.affiliation: Kuopio Research Centre of Geriatric Care, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland; School of Pharmacy, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland.
authors.forename: Heidi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Taipale
authors.affiliation: Oy Medfiles Ltd, Health Economics Unit, Kuopio, Finland.
authors.forename: Timo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Purmonen
authors.affiliation: Kuopio Research Centre of Geriatric Care, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland; School of Pharmacy, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland.
authors.forename: Marjaana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Koponen
authors.affiliation: Institute of Clinical Medicine - Neurology, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland; Department of Neurology, Kuopio University Hospital, Kuopio, Finland.
authors.forename: Hilkka
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Soininen
authors.affiliation: Kuopio Research Centre of Geriatric Care, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland; School of Pharmacy, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland.
authors.forename: Sirpa
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hartikainen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000191:economics / Q000628:therapy; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D017048:Health Care Costs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010045:Outpatients; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012111:Residence Characteristics
keywords: Alzheimer's disease; Cohort studies; Health services; Healthcare costs; Hospitalization