Characteristics of Danish older adults receiving municipality care and associations with hospitalisation: An integrative review protocol

The older population increases nationally and internationally along with the number of hospitalisations. Twenty-five percent of people over 65 years are admitted to the hospital every year. Although some hospital admissions may be necessary, other hospital admissions within this population could have been prevented. Especially if the older adults are in contact with healthcare professionals within the municipality. The proposed integrative review aims to summarise and compare the characteristics of Danish older adults receiving home care, home nursing or living in nursing homes and the associations with hospital admissions compared to older adults without municipality care. Whittemore & Knafl’s five-step integrative review approach was chosen for the strength of the design in summarising and comparing literature from research and grey literature. Knowledge from this review will be used as a step towards preventing unnecessary hospital admissions through further research and policy-making. The protocol was registered at Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/g4dvf/).