WEDNESDAY, Jan. 30 (HealthDay News) -- Patients admitted to the hospital as emergencies on public holidays have significantly higher seven-day and 30-day mortality than patients admitted on non-holidays, according to a study published online Jan. 23 in the Journal of Emergency Medicine.
Stacy Smith, from the Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary in the United Kingdom, and colleagues reviewed data from all emergency medical admissions between January 2008 and December 2010. Seven- and 30-day mortality were compared for all weekend and for all public holiday admissions and all weekday, non-public holiday admissions.
The researchers found that, of the 20,072 emergency admissions, 3.8 percent died within seven days of admission and 8.9 percent died within 30 days. After adjustment for age, gender, comorbidity, deprivation, diagnosis, and year of admission, mortality was not significantly higher at seven or 30 days for weekend admissions versus weekday admissions. However, for all public holidays, adjusted mortality was significantly higher versus other days at seven days (odds ratio, 1.48) and at 30 days (odds ratio, 1.27). There was no significant interaction between the weekend variable and the public holiday variable for mortality at seven or 30 days.
"Patients admitted as emergencies to medicine on public holidays had significantly higher mortality at seven and 30 days compared with patients admitted on other days of the week," the authors write.
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