title: Increases in heart failure visits after Christmas and New Year's Day.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Morristown Memorial Hospital, 100 Madison Avenue, Morristown, NJ 07962, USA. lisareedman@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Lisa Armstrong
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Reedman
authors.forename: John R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Allegra
authors.forename: Dennis G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Cochrane
mesh_terms: 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