Full Title: Poor outcomes in patients aged 65 and over attended in emergency services

Funded by: Instituto de Salud Carlos III (FIS PI23/01619)

Grant awarded: €39,000.00

Duration: 3 years (2024-2026)

Principal Investigator: Susana García Gutiérrez

Associated Researchers: Miguel Ángel García Bello (SESCS)

Objectives and Methodology of the Project:

Our objective is to create and validate predictive models for poor outcomes in individuals aged 65 and over who are attended in emergency services. To achieve this, we will develop and internally validate models that adapt reference values of vital signs to this age group and also consider their most common reasons for consultation. We will use the EDEN cohort, which comprises 18,374 patients recruited over one week in 2019 from 40 Spanish hospitals. Subsequently, we will externally validate these models in a cohort of 18,000 patients prospectively recruited from 8 hospitals in 2024. Additionally, we will measure the predictive capacity of the FIM frailty scale. Data will be collected from electronic medical records including sociodemographic information, functional status, reasons for consultation, clinical history, and details related to the emergency episode including comorbidities, previous treatments, and vital signs. The primary dependent variable is poor outcome, defined as death in the emergency department, admission to ICU/UCRI, or conventional hospitalization, as well as mortality, revisit rates, and readmissions within 30 days of hospital discharge. Updated models of poor outcomes will be provided, which may serve as a basis for creating age-adapted triage models for individuals aged 65 and over in the future.

Contact Person: Susana García Gutiérrez