Do older adults have equitable access to specialist epilepsy services?

The number of older patients with epilepsy has been increasing steadily. We assessed whether older adults with epilepsy have equitable access to our regional specialist service, designed to serve all patients regardless of age or their ability to pay. We examined the records of 846 adults under the current care of our epilepsy service and used data from a previous epidemiologic study to estimate the proportion of local patients accessing our service in different age groups. Whereas 43.7% of adults younger than age 20 were using the specialist service, only 2.3% of people with epilepsy who were 85 and older had been referred. The results raise the possibility of inadvertent age discrimination, putting older adults with seizures at greater risk for misdiagnoses and suboptimal management.