Ageing and utilisation of hospital services in Hong Kong: a retrospective cohort study.

Key Messages 1. In the 3 years before death, older age-groups do not use inpatient hospital services more than younger age-groups. However, they do use more accident and emergency department services. 2. No compression in morbidity was demonstrated. 3. Data obtained from this retrospective study may be used to project future usage for each type of service as a result of the changing age structure of the population, so as to facilitate health care planning. 4. Health care costs as a result of the changing age structure of populations may also be estimated more accurately, instead of assuming a linear increase in all types of services with age.published_or_final_versio