Ann Intern Med

Older adults spend an average of three weeks every year on health care appointments

January 31, 2024

For most people, especially older adults, health care visits can represent transportation, time, and cost burdens. In this cross-sectional study, researchers aimed to understand how older adults utilize the full spectrum of health care outside of the home, ranging from hospitalization to lab tests. They found that on average, older adults spent three weeks each year obtaining health care – mostly ambulatory – outside of the home. The authors stressed the opportunity to reduce patient burden by implementing patient-centered measures, including consolidating care.

• Participants were community-dwelling adults aged 65 years and older in traditional Medicare.
• Measurements included ambulatory contact days (days with a primary care or specialty care office visit, test, imaging, procedure, or treatment) and total contact days (ambulatory days plus institutional days in a hospital, emergency department, skilled-nursing facility, or hospice facility).
• In weighted results, 6,619 older adults had means of 17.3 ambulatory contact days and 20.7 total contact days in the year; 11.1% had 50 or more total contact days.
• Older adults spent most contact days on ambulatory care, including primary care visits (mean, 3.5), specialty care visits (5.7), tests (5.3), imaging (2.6), procedures (2.5), and treatments (5.7).
• Half of the test and imaging days were not on the same days as office visits (48.6% and 50.1%, respectively).
• Factors associated with more ambulatory contact days included younger age, female sex, White race, non-Hispanic ethnicity, higher income, higher educational attainment, urban residence, more chronic conditions, and care-seeking behaviors (for example, "go to the doctor…as soon as (I)…feel bad").

Source:

Ganguli I, et al. (2024, January 23). Ann Intern Med. Health Care Contact Days Among Older Adults in Traditional Medicare : A Cross-Sectional Study. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38252944/