Objective: To examine the characteristics and outcomes of acute inpatient hospitalisation episodes for people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) living in Victoria, Australia.

Background: People with PD are frequently admitted to acute care hospitals, with up to one-third reporting a hospitalisation episode yearly. Limited data is currently available to inform patterns of hospital admission of people with PD in Australia.

Method: All patients with either a principal or secondary diagnosis of idiopathic PD with an acute inpatient episode of care (i.e. not emergency departments) in a Victorian hospital from 1 July 2023 – 30 June 2024 were identified from the Victorian Admitted Episode Dataset. Demographic and clinical characteristics such as age, sex and admission type are reported. The number of acute admission episodes were also presented descriptively as rates per person-years, including the reason for admission, length of stay (LOS) and discharge destination.

Results: There were 11,243 admitted episodes from patients with PD in public (70%) or private (30%) acute hospitals in Victoria, Australia. Of these, 876 (8%) had PD as a principal diagnosis while 10,367 (92%) had PD as an additional diagnosis or chronic condition. These episodes represented approximately 1.07% of all hospitalisations in Victoria. Based on an estimated PD population of 57,000 in Victoria, this corresponds to a hospitalisation rate of 197.2 per 1,000 people with PD per year. Most PD admissions were for individuals aged ≥70 years (84%), who were males (61%) and admitted from home (86%). Most admissions were unplanned through an emergency department (60%). Falls were the reason for admission for 18% of hospitalisation episodes, while fractures accounted for 9%. Of note, 54% of patients with a fall had a fracture on admission. The median LOS was 4 days (IQR 7), and patients were mostly discharged home (58%) or to another hospital including transition care (18%).

Conclusion: These findings provide insight into the profile and outcomes of patients with PD admitted to acute hospitals. Given that PD is the fastest-growing neurological condition, greater attention to the needs of this group, particularly regarding falls prevention, is required to avoid preventable acute hospital admissions.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/characteristics-and-outcomes-of-hospitalisation-episodes-for-australians-living-with-parkinsons-disease/