Reasons for Hospitalizations and Emergency Department Visits Among Patients with Essential Tremor

TL;DR

This study found that surgical treatment for tremor is a major reason for increased healthcare use among essential tremor patients.

Contribution

The study identifies surgical treatment of tremor as the primary driver of increased healthcare utilization in essential tremor patients.

Findings

ET patients had higher odds of neurologic admissions compared to controls before excluding surgical treatments.

Excluding surgical treatments, neurologic admissions were similar between ET and control patients.

Abstract

Prior studies suggest that patients with essential tremor (ET) have increased rates of healthcare utilization, but the reason for this increased use is unknown. The objective of this study was to evaluate the reasons for healthcare use among ET patients.

This was a retrospective cross-sectional study of ET patients with an admission or emergency department (ED) visit at a tertiary health system from 2018–2023. Patients were matched on an encounter level with control patients based on propensity scores incorporating age, sex, race, and co-morbid conditions. The primary outcome was the odds of an encounter for each diagnostic category comparing ET patients with matched controls.

Only inpatient admissions for neurologic diagnoses were more likely for ET compared to control patients (odds ratio (OR) 3.73, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.54 – 5.49, p < 0.001). Once admissions related to the surgical treatment of tremor were excluded, admissions for neurologic diagnoses were equally likely among ET and control patients (OR 0.96, 95% CI 0.59 – 1.57, p = 0.88).

Surgical treatment of tremor appears to be a key driver of healthcare use among ET patients. Future investigations should examine the pattern of healthcare use of ET patients before and after surgery.

Prior studies have shown increased healthcare use among essential tremor (ET) patients. The objective of this study was to evaluate the reasons for healthcare use among ET patients compared to matched control patients. Surgical treatment of tremor was found to be a key driver of healthcare use among ET patients.

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