Healthcare Utilization in Dementia Management

Healthcare utilization in dementia management encompasses the spectrum of services accessed by individuals with cognitive impairment, from primary care and outpatient monitoring to emergency department visits and inpatient admissions. As dementia prevalence rises globally, understanding patterns of resource use is critical to optimising patient outcomes and containing costs. Key drivers of utilisation include the progressive nature of cognitive decline, the burden of multimorbidity, behavioural and psychological symptoms, and the capacity of informal and formal care networks. Hospitalisations are often sentinel events, associated with accelerated functional loss and higher mortality, while readmissions reflect gaps in discharge planning and community support. Effective management requires integrated care pathways, risk stratification at the point of diagnosis, and targeted interventions to prevent avoidable admissions, promote continuity of care and support caregivers across home, community and institutional settings.

Research from Nature Portfolio

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Healthcare Utilization in Dementia Management publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in healthcare utilization in dementia management across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Antimicrobial stewardship: Structured efforts to optimise antibiotic prescribing to improve patient outcomes and reduce resistance.

Polypharmacy: The concurrent use of multiple medications, which increases the risk of adverse events and hospitalisation.

Proxy decision-making: Involvement of caregivers or legal representatives in healthcare choices when individuals lack decision-making capacity.

Ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs): Health issues for which effective outpatient management can prevent or reduce the need for hospital admission.

Multimorbidity: The co-existence of two or more chronic health conditions, complicating treatment and increasing service use.

References

1. Detection and management of suspected infections in people with dementia – A scoping review of current practices. Ageing Research Reviews (2024).
2. Predicting patients with dementia most at risk of needing psychiatric in-patient or enhanced community care using routinely collected clinical data: retrospective multi-site cohort study. The British Journal of Psychiatry (2024).
3. Determinants of hospital readmissions in older people with dementia: a narrative review. BMC Geriatrics (2024).