Provision of critical care for the elderly in Europe: a retrospective comparison of national healthcare frameworks in intensive care units.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

In Europe, there is a distinction between two different healthcare organisation systems, the tax-based healthcare system (THS) and the social health insurance system (SHI). Our aim was to investigate whether the characteristics, treatment and mortality of older, critically ill patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) differed between THS and SHI.

Setting

ICUs in 16 European countries.

Participants

In total, 7817 critically ill older (≥80 years) patients were included in this study, 4941 in THS and 2876 in the SHI systems.

Primary and secondary outcomes measures

We chose generalised estimation equations with robust standard errors to produce population average adjusted OR (aOR). We adjusted for patient-specific variables, health economic data, includ

SUBMITTER: Wernly B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8183284 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature