Hospital Admissions Associated With Cancer Pain in Older Adults With and Without Dementia.
Scott A Strassels, Karen O Moss, Peter J Mallow and 5 others
PMID 33741261WHAT IT FOUND
In older adults admitted for cancer pain, recorded dementia was not clearly linked to different hospital cost or length of stay.
Stays averaged 5 days in both groups.
Key findings
01Among 12,034 hospital admissions for cancer pain in adults aged 60 and older, 136 had a recorded dementia diagnosis.
02Unadjusted mean cost per admission was higher without dementia, $10,736 versus $9,022, but adjusted cost was not clearly different.
03Mean and median length of stay were 5 days for both groups; adjusted stay was about 1 day longer with dementia but not clearly different.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The dementia group was small, with 136 admissions, so the study may not detect true differences in cost or stay. The data are administrative, so dementia, constipation, or cancer diagnoses may be missing or incorrectly recorded. The study could not account for pain management, family support, or communication difficulties that may affect hospital use. The sample excludes rehabilitation and long-term acute care hospitals, so people with more advanced dementia may be underrepresented. This is an observational study, so it cannot show that dementia caused any difference in cost or stay.
Declared interests
No conflict-of-interest declaration is included in the supplied text. The article is marked as supported by extramural NIH research.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that dementia has no effect on hospital cost or stay. The adjusted results were not significant, and only 136 dementia admissions were analysed, so the study may have been too small to detect a difference.