Clinical characteristics of patients with dementia in a local emergency clinic in Japan.

AimThe present study aimed to clarify the clinical characteristics of patients with dementia in an emergency clinic. MethodsWe retrospectively examined patients with dementia who visited the emergency clinic at Kurashiki Heisei Hospital, Okayama, Japan. Among 16764 patients who visited our emergency clinic in the 3years from 2014 to 2017, we focused on 2574 (15.4%) patients with dementia. ResultsThe mean age of patients with dementia was 84.90.1years, which was much older than the age of the total emergency patients (58.1 +/- 0.2years). The hospitalization rate was 54.9% for patients with dementia, which was more than double that of patients without dementia (23.3%; P<0.01), and was higher than that (44.3%) of patients who were aged 75years without dementia. Infection (42.4%) and falls (20.9%) were the most common causes for emergency visits and hospitalization in the present study. Hospitalized patients with dementia spent a longer time in hospital for stroke (64.0 +/- 5.3days) and falls (51.9 +/- 2.1days) than those with infection, epilepsy, syncope, loss of consciousness, other causes (all P<0.01) or dehydration (P0.05). ConclusionsPatients with dementia commonly attend our emergency clinic. These patients are older in age, have a higher hospitalization rate and have a longer hospitalization, especially due to stroke and falls, than patients without dementia. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2018; 18: 1383-1387.