Health conditions of older adults admitted at secondary health care facilities in humanitarian settings, 2019-2024: a retrospective analysis

Principal investigator

Elburg van Boetzelaer

Topics

Malaria, Mortality, Non-communicable diseases, Nutrition, Other
Methodology

Observational study
Reference

OCA024-28
Views

616
Downloaded

6

Purpose of study

Study status

Concept
Protocol & ERB
Implementation
Completion
Archived

Study timeline

Documents

1439-concept-paper-2024-08-14.docx 416 KB
1439-protocol-2025-09-12.docx 421 KB
1439-publication-2026-06-21.pdf 283 KB

Publications

Health conditions of older adults in complex humanitarian settings in low- and middle-income countries: a retrospective analysis of 2019–2025 data from Médecins Sans Frontières-supported inpatient departments

Elburg van Boetzelaer "–" BMJ Global Health "(2025)"

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Purpose of study

This retrospective analysis addresses objective ‘Reaching those left behind in our health services: provide services that meet the needs of those we often fail to reach in our programmes’ of the Medical-Operations Functional Strategy (page 11). Specifically sub-objective 2: ‘identify and address specific access and quality issues affecting the extremes of age (newborns, children <5, elderly). This retrospective analysis of routine data from MSF-supported secondary health care facilities across MSF projects will contribute to the systematic epidemiological description of health conditions and secondary healthcare service utilization among older adults. It will help MSF, health authorities and other humanitarian actors to better understand the health conditions of older adults in humanitarian settings and adapt services as appropriate, including: • The main health conditions of older adults admitted at secondary health facilities; • The length of stay, ICU admission and exit status of older adults admitted at secondary health facilities (by health condition); • If and how health conditions of older adults at secondary healthcare facilities differ from younger adults. Depending on the findings, the outcomes of the above questions should influence how we approach care for older adults in MSF-supported secondary healthcare services. For example, a better insight in the type of health conditions of older adults admitted at secondary health care services could lead to reflections on: • A more targeted prevention and primary level activities including referral systems that are more inclusive for older people (eg if older adults are admitted with conditions that are exacerbations of chronic disease – this could indicate a need to strengthen prevention and care and primary level to ensure timely arrival at secondary healthcare facilities); • The modality of referral and secondary care delivery (eg if we see less older adults at secondary level than we would expect, could this translate in a need to organize referral systems differently so that older adults are more likely to complete their referrals?); • The current geriatric health expertise of secondary health care staff and whether these should be strengthened; These examples, of course, are just examples and will depend on what the analysis of the data shows. In short, we expect this analysis to be a starting point for further reflection, and to contribute to the documentation of health conditions of older adults in humanitarian emergencies and identify topics related to the health of older people that should be further explored. We see this analysis as a starting point. MSF has the unique position in having a database with data on health conditions of older adults at secondary health care level from humanitarian settings from multiple countries. We would propose to analyze this data prior to embarking on prospective data collection as this analysis will contribute to addressing the current gap of knowledge around health conditions of older adults in humanitarian settings and help identify topics related to the health of older adults that should be further explored.