To understand and conceptualise the determinants of ED attendance by people with dementia towards the end of life.

Objectives

1. To identify predictors of ED attendance and frequency of re-attendance by people with dementia in the last year of life
2. To explore the experiences and perceptions of people with dementia and their caregivers about health and social care service use, including the ED
3. To integrate findings to develop a conceptual framework of ED attendance by people with dementia towards the end of life.

A convergent parallel mixed-methods design, comprising quantitative and qualitative strands of equal priority. The quantitative strand will be a population-based retrospective cohort study of ED attendances in the last year of life, using linked routine collected data. The qualitative strand will be an interview study with people with dementia and their carers into ED attendance and other health and social care service use. Findings will be integrated by juxtaposing results of each strand using a multi-method meta-data matrix, divided by predisposing, enabling, and reinforcing factors.