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Article: Continuity of primary care and emergency department utilization among elderly people
- Article from:
- Canadian Medical Association. Journal
- Article date:
- November 20, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright Canadian Medical Association Nov 20, 2007. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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ABSTRACT
Background: People aged 65 years or more represent a growing group of emergency department users. We investigated whether characteristics of primary care (accessibility and continuity) are associated with emergency department use by elderly people in both urban and rural areas.
Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study using information for a random sample of 95 173 people aged 65 years or more drawn from provincial administrative databases in Quebec for 2000 and 2001. We obtained data on the patients' age, sex, comorbidity, rate of emergency department use (number of days on which a visit was made to an amergency department per 1000 days at risk [i.e., alive and not in ...