Biomaterial Database

[Are emergency admissions to medical departments dependent on weather?]. 2000

N H Tollefsen, and K Dickstein

Medisinsk avdeling, Sentralsjukehuset i Rogaland, Postboks 8100, 4068 Stavanger. Nils.Tollefsen@pki.uib.no

BACKGROUND It is widely believed that patients are more frequently admitted to hospital in bad weather. METHODS We evaluated all 15,060 emergency admissions to the Medical Department of Rogaland Central Hospital during a 17-month period and compared this material with meteorological data. RESULTS We found no correlation between the number of admissions and "good weather" (as defined by the amount of cloud cover), but we found a significant difference of about two more patients (6.6%) being admitted on days with rain and snow. There was no correlation between the amount of precipitation and the number of admitted patients, but a small, significant inverse relation between temperature and admissions. We have also demonstrated a considerable difference in the number of admissions on the different weekdays, with the highest number on Mondays and the lowest on Saturdays. CONCLUSIONS Both the incidence of disease and doctor availability may partially explain the influence of weather and the daily variation in emergency admissions to hospital.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008297	Male		Males
D009664	Norway	A country located in northern Europe, bordering the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, west of Sweden. The capital is Oslo.	Kingdom of Norway
D010343	Patient Admission	The process of accepting patients. The concept includes patients accepted for medical and nursing care in a hospital or other health care institution.	Voluntary Admission,Admission, Patient,Admission, Voluntary,Admissions, Patient,Admissions, Voluntary,Patient Admissions,Voluntary Admissions
D004630	Emergencies	Situations or conditions requiring immediate intervention to avoid serious adverse results.	Emergency
D004636	Emergency Service, Hospital	Hospital department responsible for the administration and provision of immediate medical or surgical care to the emergency patient.	Emergency Outpatient Unit,Emergency Services Utilization,Hospital Emergency Room,Hospital Emergency Service,Hospital Emergency Services Utilization,Accident and Emergency Department,Emergency Departments,Emergency Hospital Service,Emergency Room,Emergency Units,Emergency Ward,Hospital Service Emergency,Service, Hospital Emergency,Department, Emergency,Departments, Emergency,Emergencies, Hospital Service,Emergency Department,Emergency Hospital Services,Emergency Outpatient Units,Emergency Room, Hospital,Emergency Rooms,Emergency Rooms, Hospital,Emergency Services, Hospital,Emergency Unit,Emergency Wards,Emergency, Hospital Service,Hospital Emergency Rooms,Hospital Emergency Services,Hospital Service Emergencies,Hospital Service, Emergency,Hospital Services, Emergency,Outpatient Unit, Emergency,Outpatient Units, Emergency,Room, Emergency,Room, Hospital Emergency,Rooms, Emergency,Rooms, Hospital Emergency,Service Emergencies, Hospital,Service Emergency, Hospital,Service, Emergency Hospital,Services Utilization, Emergency,Services Utilizations, Emergency,Services, Emergency Hospital,Services, Hospital Emergency,Unit, Emergency,Unit, Emergency Outpatient,Units, Emergency,Units, Emergency Outpatient,Utilization, Emergency Services,Ward, Emergency,Wards, Emergency
D005260	Female		Females
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D012621	Seasons	Divisions of the year according to some regularly recurrent phenomena usually astronomical or climatic. (From McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, 6th ed)	Seasonal Variation,Season,Seasonal Variations,Variation, Seasonal,Variations, Seasonal
D014887	Weather	The state of the ATMOSPHERE over minutes to months.	Fog,Fogs