ABSTRACT
Objectives
To estimate the prevalence of extreme behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) in hospitalised patients in comparison with people with dementia with a long hospital stay but no mental health and behavioural problems related to dementia.
Design
Retrospective analysis using the Admitted Patient Data Collection for people aged ≥ 50 with a diagnosis of dementia who had a long stay (defined as ≥ 42 days) in a public hospital between January 2015 and December 2019.
Setting
New South Wales (NSW), Australia.
Participants
People with dementia aged ≥ 50 years with long stays in NSW hospitals.
Measurements
Characteristics of behaviour-related long stays (BRLS) and non-behaviour-related long stays (NBRLS) cohorts were compared using Welch’s t-test and Fisher’s exact test.
Results
There were 115 people with dementia who had 120 BRLS (range 42–2043 days, median 86 days, IQR 53–151 days) and 6186 people with dementia who had 7523 NBRLS (range 42–5750 days, median 61 days, IQR 49–84 days). Those in the BRLS cohort were younger by a mean of 5.96 years (p < 0.001; Welch’s t-test, 95% CI 4.18–7.74) and more likely to be men (0.0062, p < 0.001, Fisher’s exact test). BRLS occurred predominantly in non-psychiatric public hospitals (92.4%). People with BRLS were more likely to have mental health comorbidities (n = 65, 56.5%) than people with NBRLS (2011, 32.7%).
Conclusions
BRLS in people with dementia are less common than NBRLS and are more likely to occur in the context of mental health comorbidities and in younger males.