No significant alteration in admissions to emergency departments during Ramadan.
BACKGROUND
Dietary and lifestyle changes during Ramadan may affect the appearance rate of emergency health problems or increase emergency department (ED) use.


OBJECTIVE
This study's aim was to investigate Ramadan's effects on ED use.


METHODS
The study group consisted of patients admitted to the ED during Ramadan, and the control group consisted of patients admitted during the 30-day period immediately after Ramadan. The study compared the daily number, diagnosis, and demographic and clinical characteristics of the two groups.


RESULTS
The study included 2079 patients. Of these, 1094 (52.6%) were admitted during Ramadan, and the remaining 985 (47.4%) formed the control group. The average number of patients admitted to the ED per day was 36.47 +/- 7.9 in the study group and 32.83 +/- 5.8 in the control group (p = 0.046). The two groups' demographic and clinical characteristics, such as age, sex, final diagnosis, admission times to ED, and diagnosis, were similar.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results show that during Ramadan, the clinical features of patients admitted to the ED and the number of ED admissions for specific ailments did not change significantly.
Department of Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine, Kocaeli University, Kocaeli, Turkey.
Murat
M
Pekdemir
Murat
M
Ersel
Serkan
S
Yilmaz
Mecit
M
Uygun
D000328:Adult; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005215:Fasting; D005260:Female; D006693:Holidays; D006801:Humans; D007514:Islam; D008297:Male; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology