# Investigation of the reasons and frequency of oncology patients over the age of 65 who apply to the emergency department

## TL;DR

This study examines why older cancer patients visit emergency departments, finding common reasons like infection and pain, and highlights gaps in patient knowledge about seeking care.

## Contribution

The study identifies key reasons for emergency visits among elderly oncology patients and links them to insufficient medical guidance.

## Key findings

- The most common reasons for emergency visits were infection, pain, nausea-vomiting, and dyspnea.
- A significant difference was found between patients' emergency visit reasons and their knowledge of when to seek help.
- Recurrent visits suggest a lack of comprehensive information for patients and caregivers.

## Abstract

This study aims to investigate frequency and causes of emergency department visits among oncology patients aged 65 and older.

In this cross-sectional, descriptive and comparative study, data were collected a questionnaire form from a single emergency deparment of a university hospital in İzmir, West Turkey between January 2022 and July 2022. Data were analyzed by using IBM SPSS Statistics 25 software.

A total 125 patients were included in the study. The most common causes of patients to the emergency derparment were infection, pain, nausea-vomiting, and dyspnea. A significant difference was found between the reason for the patient’s emergency department visit and their knowledge of when to seek medical help (p < 0.05).

The recurrent visits of cancer patients to emergency departments suggest an inadequacy of comprehensive information available to both patients and their caregivers concerning the pursuit of emergency medical intervention.