Influence of dispersion and aging on the frequency of some common interventions in the elderly

Public administrations have to procure equitable care that compensates resistance factors such as communication problems and those arising from aging. Our objective was to analyze the influence of population dispersion and aging on the frequency rate of some common surgical procedures in elderly patients.

We used the database of surgical activity of the only hospital in a Spanish province to identify cataract surgeries, hip replacements and pacemaker implants performed during 2010. Using the National Statistics Institute Census, we calculated the rate for each procedure and the proportion of inhabitants over 65 in each municipality. Time needed to access the hospital by road from each municipality was used as a measure of dispersion.

The population was distributed into 339 population centers, 90% of which had less than 1,000 inhabitants. The worst communicated populations were smaller (r=-0.194; P<.0001) and had a higher proportion of elderly (r=0.406; P<.0001). No relationship was found between the frequentation of the selected interventions and the number of inhabitants or travel time. Similarly, no differences were found when the analysis was done by pooling the population for 30 minutes isochrones. The percentage of those over 65 years was independently associated to the frequency rate of cataract surgery (beta=0.211; P<.001) and showed a trend to increased frequency for the implantation of pacemakers and hip replacements.

Our study shows that, with the current organization of care and in the territory analyzed, neither population dispersion nor aging seems to reduce frequentation of several interventions typical of the elderly population.