Elderly emergency patients presenting with non-specific complaints: Characteristics and outcomes

Non-specific complaints (NSC) are common at the emergency department, but only a few studies have shown evidence that these complaints are associated with a poor prognosis in elderly emergency patients. To describe patient characteristics and outcomes in a cohort of elderly emergency patients presenting with NSC. Outcomes were: patient characteristics, hospitalization, 90-day ED-return visits, and 30-day mortality. A retrospective cohort study was conducted amongst elderly patients present to the Internal Medicine Emergency Department (ED) between 01-09-2010 and 31-08-2011. NSC were defined as indefinable complaints that lack a pre-differential diagnosis needed to initiate of a standardized patient evaluation. Cox regression was performed to calculate Hazard Ratios (HR) and corrected for confounders such as comorbidity. In total, 1784 patients were enrolled; 244 (13.7%) presented with NSC. Compared to those with SC, comorbidity was higher in the NSC-group (Charlson comorbidity index 3.0 vs. 2.4, p