Emergency Department Visits by Adults Age 65 and Older With Alzheimer Disease: United States, 2020-2022

In 2022, Alzheimer disease was the seventh leading cause of death in the United States and affected an estimated 6.5 million adults age 65 and older. Adults with Alzheimer disease have been shown to rely on emergency departments (EDs) as a source for care. This report describes ED visits by adults age 65 and older with Alzheimer disease according to selected patient and visit characteristics and compares them with visits by adults without Alzheimer disease.

Data in this report are from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, a nationally representative annual survey of nonfederal general and short-stay hospitals. Results are presented by combining data for 2020, 2021, and 2022 for more detailed subgroup analyses. Estimates and their corresponding variances were calculated using SAS-callable SUDAAN software and were based on 3-year annual averages. Differences between rates and percentages were evaluated using two-sided significance  t  tests at the 0.05 level.

During 2020-2022, the annual ED visit rate by adults age 65 and older with Alzheimer's disease was 36.1 visits per 1,000 adults and increased with age. ED visit rates were highest among Black non-Hispanic people. Ambulance arrival was more frequent for ED visits by adults with Alzheimer's disease (61.0%) compared with visits by those without Alzheimer's disease (34.9%). About one-third (29.6%) of ED visits by adults with Alzheimer's disease were made by nursing home residents, higher than the corresponding percentage of visits by adults without Alzheimer's disease (5.9%). Approximately 37.2% of ED visits made by adults with Alzheimer's disease resulted in hospital admission, which was higher than the corresponding percentage of visits by those without Alzheimer's disease (28.6%).