title: Social deprivation and the rate of emergency medical admission for older persons.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Deprivation Status increases the annual admission incidence of emergency medical admissions; the extent to which deprivation influences the admission of older persons is less well known.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To examine whether deprivation within a hospital catchment area influences emergency medical admissions for the elderly population.
  
  
  METHODS
  The relationship between Deprivation Status, Dependency Ratio (population proportion of non-working age (<15 or ≥65 years) and age for all emergency admissions (82 368 episodes of 44 628 patients), over a 13-year period, were examined and ranked by quintile.
  
  
  METHODS
  Univariate and multi-variable risk estimates (incidence rate ratios) were calculated, using truncated Poisson regression.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The Dependency Ratio and the Deprivation index independently predicted the annual incidence rate of medical emergencies; however, when calculated for older persons, the corresponding incidence rate ratios showed a falling trend with increasing Deprivation Status-Q2 0.51 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.50, 0.52), Q3 0.59 (95% CI: 0.58, 0.60), Q4 0.51 (95% CI: 0.50, 0.52) and Q5 0.37 (95% CI: 0.36, 0.38). Thus, with increasing Deprivation Status, the proportion of total admission from the ≥65-year cohort fell substantially.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The admission incidence rate for emergency medical patients is strongly influenced by the catchment area Deprivation Status. However, because of its greater impact on the younger population, increasing deprivation alters the ratio of younger to older persons as a proportion of total emergency admissions.
authors.affiliation: From the Medical Physics and Bioengineering Department, St James's Hospital, Dublin 8, Ireland scournane@stjames.ie.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cournane
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, St James's Hospital, Dublin 8, Ireland.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Conway
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, St James's Hospital, Dublin 8, Ireland.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Byrne
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, St James's Hospital, Dublin 8, Ireland.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: O'Riordan
authors.affiliation: School of Geographical and Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow, University Avenue, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Coveney
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, St James's Hospital, Dublin 8, Ireland.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Silke
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D004630:Emergencies; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007494:Ireland; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011203:Poverty / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011204:Poverty Areas; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors