Evaluation of ambulatory care sensitive condition-related primary care healthcare utilisation: a comparison between individuals with dementia versus a matched population without dementia

Ambulatory-care-sensitive conditions (ACSCs) are specific chronic and acute health conditions where effective primary and community care can help prevent the need for hospital admission. Individuals with dementia have higher rates of all-cause and ACSC-related hospitalisation than individuals without dementia. There is limited information describing management of ACSCs in primary care amongst those with dementia, relative to the population without dementia, as well as the influence of severity of dementia; this is needed to complement existing evidence that to date, has only focussed on avoidable hospitalisations. The project aims to compare use of primary care services related to specific conditions, which if not properly managed, could result in the need for hospital care; for this study, it is proposed to evaluate whether there are any differences in primary care use for these conditions in people with dementia compared to people of a similar age without dementia.