Health and health service use of very elderly Newfoundlanders

Objective To develop a better understanding of the current health status and health care use of the population of very elderly Newfoundlanders to inform policy makers, decision makers, and health care providers about aspects of the health care system that might be in higher demand in the near future. Design Descriptive analysis using data from the Newfoundland and Labrador component of the Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network database for the 2013 calendar year. Setting Newfoundland. Participants A total of 1204 Newfoundlanders aged 80 years and older. Main outcome measures Encounters with family physicians, medications used, hospitalizations, emergency department (ED) visits, laboratory tests, and mortality were described and compared by sex, age, and location (rural vs urban). Results Compared with men, women were prescribed more medications (P = .01), were less likely to be hospitalized (P = .007), were more likely to visit an ED (P = .049), and died less frequently (P = .001). Compared with those aged 90 and older, those aged 80 to 89 made more visits to their family doctors (P = .001) and were prescribed more medications (P = .001). Predictably, those aged 90 and older died more frequently than their younger counterparts did (P = .001). Compared with those in rural communities, urban dwellers were prescribed more medications (P = .031), were hospitalized more often (P = .001), were more likely to visit the ED (P = .002), were more likely to have laboratory tests ordered (P = .001), died more frequently (P = .023), and visited their family physicians more frequently (P = .001). Conclusion Octogenarian women living in urban areas are the subcohort using the most resources. This might be owing to movement of the elderly to urban locations as they age.