Emergency department visits among rural and urban older adults: disparities in ambulatory and emergency care sensitive conditions.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Older adults in rural geographies may be uniquely vulnerable to difficulty accessing outpatient care, and therefore more reliant on emergency department (ED) care. We compared ED utilization for ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs) and emergency care sensitive conditions (ECSCs) among rural and urban Medicare beneficiaries.

Methods

We conducted a pooled cross-sectional analysis of 2016-2020 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey data, assessing ED visitation rates for ACSCs and ECSCs. We present ED visit rates per 100 beneficiary-years and estimated logistic regression models to quantify the odds of having any ED visit, any ACSC-related ED visit, or any ECSC-related ED visit in a given year among older adults in rural and urban areas, adjusting for sociodemog

SUBMITTER: Gettel CJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12291402 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature