Variations in elderly peoples’ visits to the emergency departments in Iceland: A five-year population study

Introduction: Elderly people visiting emergency departments (ED) are a non-homogenous group. Gender and other socio-demographic variations in emergency care might be present. However, gender-specific ED-data is scarce. Methods: We retrieved retrospective data on all ED-visits, by 67 years and older from 2008 to 2012, and calculated incidence of visits applying population registries. The relationship of age-categories, marital status, health and residence with outcomes were analyzed descriptively by Chi-square tests. Regression models were built to analyze gender-specific variations. Results: Of the total ED-visits, 20% were from the elderly population (n = 66,141), at a mean 3.1 visits per individual. Men (n = 30.269) had higher incidence of visits in all age-categories. They were mostly married (69%) and women widowed (43%), although the incidence of partnered visitors underrepresented population-data while widowed and single living overrepresented. Women had more often co-morbidities, their most common causes of visits were musculoskeletal (20%) and men circulatory causes (14%). Men were more likely to be admitted (OR: 1.23; 95% CI 1.16–1.30) and had more unplanned ED-revisits (HR: 1.20; 95% CI 1.06–1.35) within 30 days. Discussion: Elderly men visiting the ED were more often married than women. Gender differences were found in causes of visits and outcomes. In clinical practice, gender may be considered when identifying risk and planning adequate care related elderly ED-visits.