Back to Search
Start Over
Use of medical services by older Australian women with dementia: a longitudinal cohort study
- Source :
- Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, Vol 45, Iss 5, Pp 497-503 (2021)
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Elsevier BV, 2021.
-
Abstract
- Objective: To assess the use of Medicare‐subsidised health services by women with and without dementia. Methods: Data from women of the 1921–26 birth cohort of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health were linked to various administrative datasets to ascertain dementia diagnosis. The use of subsidised general practitioner (GP) services (75+ health assessments [HAs], chronic disease management meetings [CDMs], multidisciplinary case conferences [MCCs]) and specialist and allied health services between 2000 and 2013 for these women was analysed using longitudinal GEE models. Results: A total of 9,683 women were included with 1,444 (15%) women identified as having dementia. Compared to women with no dementia indication, women with dementia had more yearly non‐emergency GP attendances (short [30 minutes] IRR=1.11 [1.04, 1.19]) and fewer specialist attendances (IRR=0.91 [0.85, 0.97]) and were more likely to have an emergency GP attendance (OR=2.29 [2.05, 2.57]). There were no significant differences in the odds of having either a HA or CDM or using allied health services for women with and without dementia indicators. Conclusions: The overall use of services designed to improve the prevention and coordination of the care of older people with chronic conditions was low. Women with dementia were no more likely to access these services. Implications for public health: There is underuse of some primary and allied healthcare services designed for people with complex chronic conditions. These could be better used by women with dementia to improve the management of complex comorbidities (e.g. CDMs), to prevent the onset of disability (e.g. physiotherapy), and enhance needs assessment and service access (e.g. HAs).
- Subjects :
- medicine.medical_specialty
Longitudinal study
National Health Programs
Gee
Odds
Cohort Studies
Health care
Humans
Medicine
Dementia
Longitudinal Studies
health service use
Aged
general practice
business.industry
Public health
Australia
longitudinal study
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
Attendance
medicine.disease
health assessments
Family medicine
Needs assessment
Female
Public aspects of medicine
RA1-1270
business
dementia
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 13260200
- Volume :
- 45
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....b9e2a6df4a4b17103abe510dc4e89262