Materials and Methods: 396 patients aged between 65 and 98 (mean 76.89±7.59) accessing the emergency department were evaluated over a 1-month period. Both screening tool were administered in the emergency department by emergency specialist physicians. Risk factors were assigned a score based on their regression co-efficient estimate and a total risk score was created. This score was evaluated for sensitivity and specificity.
Results: Of the 396 participants, 198 (50%) were female. A significant correlation was not observed between risk of adverse outcomes and characteristics of the participant (p>0.005). The Identification of Seniors at Risk (cutoff of ?3) was positive in 61.3% of the patients, whereas 79% were Triage Risk Stratification Tool-positive (cutoff of ≥2). The two scores were significantly correlated and had similar areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves in predicting hospital admission (Identification of Seniors at Risk, 0.63; Triage Risk Stratification Tool, 0.59).
Conclusions: The predictive accuracy of the scoring systems for hospital admission after 30 days was significant at cutoff values of ?3 for Identification of Seniors at Risk and ≥2 for Triage Risk Stratification Tool. The Identification of Seniors at Risk had slightly higher sensitivity and lower specificity than the Triage Risk Stratification Tool.
Keywords : Emergency Service, Hospital; Geriatric Assessment; Risk Assessment; Aged