# Variations in older people’s emergency care use by social care setting: a systematic review of international evidence

## TL;DR

This paper reviews how older people in different social care settings use emergency care, finding that assisted living facilities have the highest emergency hospital attendance.

## Contribution

The study systematically compares emergency care use across various international social care settings for older adults.

## Key findings

- Emergency hospital attendance is lowest in nursing homes and highest in assisted living facilities.
- Emergency admissions show little variation across social care settings.
- Research on emergency care use in home care and assisted living is limited.

## Abstract

Older adults’ use of social care and their healthcare utilization are closely related. Residents of care homes access emergency care more often than the wider older population; however, less is known about emergency care use across other social care settings.

A systematic review was conducted, searching six electronic databases between January 2012 and February 2022.

Older people access emergency care from a variety of community settings.

Differences in study design contributed to high variation observed between studies.

Although data were limited, findings suggest that emergency hospital attendance is lowest from nursing homes and highest from assisted living facilities, whilst emergency admissions varied little by social care setting.

There is a paucity of published research on emergency hospital use from social care settings, particularly home care and assisted living facilities. More attention is needed on this area, with standardized definitions to enable comparisons between studies.