Understanding NHS hospital admissions in England: linkage of Hospital Episode Statistics to the Hertfordshire Cohort Study
Understanding NHS hospital admissions in England: linkage of Hospital Episode Statistics to the Hertfordshire Cohort Study
Background: concern over the sustainability of the National Health Service (NHS) is often focussed on rising numbers of hospital admissions, particularly among older people. Hospital admissions are enumerated routinely by the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) Service, but published data do not allow individual-level service use to be explored. This study linked information on Hertfordshire Cohort Study (HCS) participants with HES inpatient data, with the objective of describing patterns and predictors of admissions among individuals.
Methods: 2,997 community-dwelling men and women aged 59–73 years completed a baseline HCS assessment between 1998 and 2004; HES and mortality data to 31 March 2010 were linked with the HCS database. This paper describes patterns of hospital use among the cohort at both the admission and individual person level.
Results: the cohort experienced 8,741 admissions; rates were 391 per 1,000 person-years among men (95% CI: 380, 402) and 327 among women (95% CI: 316, 338), P < 0.0001 for gender difference. A total of 1,187 men (75%) and 981 women (69%) were admitted to hospital at least once; among these, median numbers of admissions were 3 in men (inter-quartile range, (IQR): 1, 6) and 2 in women (IQR: 1, 5). Forty-eight percent of those ever admitted had experienced an emergency admission and 70% had been admitted overnight.
Discussion: It is possible to link routinely collected HES data with detailed information from a cohort study. Hospital admission is common among community-dwelling ‘young-old’ men and women. These linked datasets will facilitate research into lifecourse determinants of hospital admission and inform strategies to manage demand on the NHS.
hospital admissions, older people, hospital episode statistics, data linkage, healthcare burden
653-660
Simmonds, S.J.
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Syddall, H.E.
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Walsh, B.
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Evandrou, M.
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Dennison, E.M.
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Cooper, C.
e05f5612-b493-4273-9b71-9e0ce32bdad6
Aihie Sayer, A.
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September 2014
Simmonds, S.J.
2214e6b5-868a-4dae-8491-fca5d5a8ecb8
Syddall, H.E.
a0181a93-8fc3-4998-a996-7963f0128328
Walsh, B.
5818243e-048d-4b4b-88c5-231b0e419427
Evandrou, M.
cd2210ea-9625-44d7-b0f4-fc0721a25d28
Dennison, E.M.
ee647287-edb4-4392-8361-e59fd505b1d1
Cooper, C.
e05f5612-b493-4273-9b71-9e0ce32bdad6
Aihie Sayer, A.
fb4c2053-6d51-4fc1-9489-c3cb431b0ffb
Simmonds, S.J., Syddall, H.E., Walsh, B., Evandrou, M., Dennison, E.M., Cooper, C. and Aihie Sayer, A.
(2014)
Understanding NHS hospital admissions in England: linkage of Hospital Episode Statistics to the Hertfordshire Cohort Study.
Age and Ageing, 43 (5), .
(doi:10.1093/ageing/afu020).
Abstract
Background: concern over the sustainability of the National Health Service (NHS) is often focussed on rising numbers of hospital admissions, particularly among older people. Hospital admissions are enumerated routinely by the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) Service, but published data do not allow individual-level service use to be explored. This study linked information on Hertfordshire Cohort Study (HCS) participants with HES inpatient data, with the objective of describing patterns and predictors of admissions among individuals.
Methods: 2,997 community-dwelling men and women aged 59–73 years completed a baseline HCS assessment between 1998 and 2004; HES and mortality data to 31 March 2010 were linked with the HCS database. This paper describes patterns of hospital use among the cohort at both the admission and individual person level.
Results: the cohort experienced 8,741 admissions; rates were 391 per 1,000 person-years among men (95% CI: 380, 402) and 327 among women (95% CI: 316, 338), P < 0.0001 for gender difference. A total of 1,187 men (75%) and 981 women (69%) were admitted to hospital at least once; among these, median numbers of admissions were 3 in men (inter-quartile range, (IQR): 1, 6) and 2 in women (IQR: 1, 5). Forty-eight percent of those ever admitted had experienced an emergency admission and 70% had been admitted overnight.
Discussion: It is possible to link routinely collected HES data with detailed information from a cohort study. Hospital admission is common among community-dwelling ‘young-old’ men and women. These linked datasets will facilitate research into lifecourse determinants of hospital admission and inform strategies to manage demand on the NHS.
Text
Age Ageing-2014-Simmonds-653-60.pdf
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 7 December 2013
e-pub ahead of print date: 4 March 2014
Published date: September 2014
Keywords:
hospital admissions, older people, hospital episode statistics, data linkage, healthcare burden
Organisations:
Faculty of Health Sciences
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 362970
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/362970
ISSN: 0002-0729
PURE UUID: 8186e6f6-c139-49f7-ac29-9865f1dc86ed
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Date deposited: 18 Mar 2014 11:55
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 03:02
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Author:
S.J. Simmonds
Author:
A. Aihie Sayer
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