Increases in heart failure visits after Christmas and New Year's Day.
The authors hypothesized increased emergency department (ED) visits for heart failure (HF) during a 2-week Christmas holiday period similar to a recent study showing increased cardiac death rates. A retrospective analysis was performed from a database of 18 EDs in New Jersey and New York from January 1, 1996, to November 30, 2004, analyzing HF visits from December 1 to January 31. The authors compared the mean daily visits for the 2-week holiday period of December 25 to January 7, as well as December 26 to December 30 and January 2 to January 5, using the Student t test. A total of 4.7 million patients were studied, 65,646 with an ED diagnosis of HF and 11,525 during January and December. There was a 23% (95% confidence interval [CI], 14%-31%; P<.001) increase in daily visits for December 25 to January 7 and a 33% (95% CI, 16%-51%; P=.007) and 30% (95% CI, 22%-38%; P<.01) increase in the 4 days following Christmas and New Year's, respectively. The authors found a significant increase in daily HF visits in the 2-week holiday period and the 4 days following the holidays, even greater than that reported for sudden cardiac death.
Reedman
Lisa Armstrong
LA
Department of Emergency Medicine, Morristown Memorial Hospital, 100 Madison Avenue, Morristown, NJ 07962, USA. lisareedman@yahoo.com
Allegra
John R
JR
Cochrane
Dennis G
DG
D000368:Aged; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006693:Holidays; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009515:New Jersey / Q000453:epidemiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012621:Seasons; D013997:Time Factors