Chief Complaints of Elderly Individuals on Presentation to Emergency Department: A Retrospective Analysis of South Korean National Data 2014

Abstract

We aimed to assess the chief complaints (CCs) of elderly individuals on presentation to the emergency department (ED) according to gender, age, and disease-related and injury-related visits. The 2014 registry database of the National Emergency Department Information System in South Korea, which included data on 908,761 ED visits by individuals aged 65 years and over, was reviewed. We found that 80.7% ED visits were related to disease, whereas the remaining visits were related to injury. The most common CCs presented by elderly male and female individuals with disease-related visits were dyspnea and dizziness, respectively. The 10 most common CCs accounted for 45.5% and 49.2% of the total disease-related visits for male and female individuals, respectively. The most common CC in male and female individuals with injury-related visits was headache and hip pain, respectively. The CC rank showed minimal variance among the different age groups, but a difference was observed between male and female individuals. The most common mechanism of injury in elderly male and female individuals was slipping, wherein females showed a higher occurrence rate than their male counterparts. These findings can be used to establish an ED training curriculum for nursing students and ED nurses, particularly for ED triage in the elderly.