No significant alteration in admissions to emergency departments during Ramadan.

ABSTRACT

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.