End-of-Life Hospital and Healthcare Use Among Older Adults With Alzheimer's Disease

A study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society has determined how people with Alzheimer's disease use medical services during their final months, reports Medical Xpress . The team studied information from more than 1,100 people with Alzheimer's living in Belgium who died in 2012, comparing two cohorts diagnosed with the disorder. One cohort had death certificates that listed Alzheimer's as the cause of death, while the other included individuals diagnosed with Alzheimer's but whose certificates listed a different cause. Seventy-seven percent of the subjects had something other than Alzheimer's listed as the cause of death on their certificate, while 22 percent, average age 85 and mostly women, died of Alzheimer's disease. Individuals who died with Alzheimer's were more likely to have had at least one hospitalization and more intensive care unit (ICU) stays. People in both cohorts had about 12 visits with a physician in the last six months of their lives. However, those who died with Alzheimer's received fewer palliative care services, and spent fewer days in a nursing community. People whose cause of death was listed as something other than Alzheimer's also were more likely to have invasive procedures versus those who died of Alzheimer's. The conclusion was that older adults whose cause of death was Alzheimer's used fewer healthcare resources than individuals whose cause of death was listed as something else even though they had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's.