Aging and utilization of hospital services in Hong Kong: retrospective cohort study

We tested the hypotheses firstly that people dying in older age groups do not use hospital services more than those dying in younger age groups in the previous 3 years before death; secondly, that there may be compression of morbidity demonstrated by a decline in the use of hospital services among people in the last 3 years before death in the older age groups.

We extracted mortality data from all hospitals of the Hospital Authority and analyzed the data using negative binomial regression with duration of hospital stay before death as the outcome variables; age, gender, year of death (period), and birth cohort were predictor variables.

People dying in older age groups do not use in patient hospital services more than younger age groups in the 3 years before death. However, they do use more AED services. No compression in morbidity was demonstrated.

Data obtained from this retrospective study may be used to project future usage for each type of service as a result of changing age structure of the population.