ArticleOpen medicine : a peer-reviewed, independent, open-access journal2011
Emergency department visits during an Olympic gold medal television broadcast.
Article in Open medicine : a peer-reviewed, independent, open-access journal, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- Thoracic Imaging Utilization on Super Bowl Sundays: A Retrospective Analysis From a Large Academic Medical Center.Cureus · 2026Article
- Trauma workload during COVID19 lockdown: an analysis of incidence in 4 million people.Irish journal of medical science · 2022Article
- A retrospective multistate analysis: Do regional football games impact emergency department patient volume?Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians open · 2021Article
- Admission rates in emergency departments in Geneva during tennis broadcasting: a retrospective study.BMC emergency medicine · 2018Article
- The influence of a major sporting event upon emergency department attendances; A retrospective cross-national European study.PloS one · 2018Article
- Social benefit payments and acute injury among low-income mothers.Open medicine : a peer-reviewed, independent, open-access journal · 2012Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPractice pattern variations are often attributed to physician decision-making with no accounting for patient preferences.
objectiveTo test whether a mass media television broadcast unrelated to health was associated with changes in the rate and characteristics of visits for acute emergency care.
designTime-series analysis of emergency department visits for any reason. SUBJECTS: Population-based sample of all patients seeking emergency care in Ontario, Canada. MEASURES: The broadcast day was defined as the Olympic men's gold medal ice hockey game final. The control days were defined as the 6 Sundays before and after the broadcast day.
resultsA total of 99 447 visits occurred over the 7 Sundays, of which 13 990 occurred on the broadcast day. Comparing the broadcast day with control days, we found no significant difference in the hourly rate of visits before the broadcast (544 vs 537, p = 0.41) or after the broadcast (647 vs 639, p = 0.55). In contrast, we observed a significant reduction in hourly rate of visits during the broadcast (647 vs 783, p < 0.001), equal to an absolute decrease of 409 patients, a relative decrease of 17% (95% confidence interval 13-21), or about 136 fewer patients per hour. The relative decrease during the broadcast was particularly large for adult men with low triage severity. The greatest reductions were for patients with abdominal, musculoskeletal or traumatic disorders.
conclusionMass media television broadcasts can influence patient preferences and thereby lead to a decrease in emergency department visits.
Indexed as
Identifiers
21915235PMC3148000W1537734433What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.