Factors associated with acute care service use after epilepsy hospitalisation in people with intellectual disability.

The cohort was derived from health and disability service records, so it likely represents people with more severe disability or health conditions and may not apply to people with mild intellectual disability. The study used administrative data and lacked clinical details such as epilepsy subtype and treatments. Comorbidities recorded only in community or outpatient care may have been missed, especially mental health conditions. Emergency department data covered only 60% of New South Wales public hospitals during part of the period, so emergency department presentations may have been undercounted. The study could not examine post-discharge community care or medication use, so it cannot show what happened after discharge or whether continuity of care explained the risk.

The work was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council and the University of New South Wales Scientia PhD Scholarship. The authors declared no conflict of interest.

Do not treat these associations as evidence that any intervention reduces readmission. This observational study found no causal effect, and the authors did not test treatment pathways or post-discharge care.