SynthesisEmergency medicine journal : EMJ2016
Burden of emergency conditions and emergency care usage: new estimates from 40 countries.
Synthesis in Emergency medicine journal : EMJ, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 80 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
80 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 117 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review of acute and emergency care interventions for adolescents and adults with severe acute respiratory infections including COVID-19 in low- and middle-income countries.Journal of global health · 2022Pooled it
- Emergency Medicine Training Programs in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review.Annals of global health · 2020Pooled it
- Mortality due to low-quality health systems in the universal health coverage era: a systematic analysis of amenable deaths in 137 countries.Lancet (London, England) · 2018Pooled it
- Trial
- Global challenges and perspectives in acute and emergency general surgery in low and middle-income countries: a scoping review.BMJ global health · 2026Article
- Global academic productivity in emergency medicine and research output by countries of different income levels.Clinical and experimental emergency medicine · 2026Article
- The Nigerian Emergency Care System: Structural Challenges, Workforce Constraints, and Financing Gaps.Cureus · 2026Review
- Quality improvement in emergency units in low resource settings: a qualitative assessment for understanding challenges and delivering solutions.BMJ open quality · 2026Article
- Trends in Emergency Department utilization by disease categories in a migrant-dense high-income setting: a retrospective study in Dubai, 2021-2025.International journal of emergency medicine · 2026Article
- Effectiveness of a village emergency care model: a pilot intervention in rural Tanzania.Emergency medicine journal : EMJ · 2026Article
- Climate, geography and socioeconomic vulnerability and emergency care accessibility in Nepal, 2022: a high-resolution geospatial analysis of inequalities.BMJ global health · 2026Article
- The 'golden hour': a geospatial analysis of travel time to public emergency departments in Kenya.BMJ global health · 2026Observational
- Beyond facial injury: prognostic utility of maxillofacial trauma scores in the emergency department.European journal of trauma and emergency surgery : official publication of the European Trauma Society · 2026Observational
- Assessment of emergency care services in Nigerian hospitals: A cross-sectional study.African journal of emergency medicine : Revue africaine de la medecine d'urgence · 2026Article
- Team-based care within community health centres in Ontario, Canada and the association with emergency department visits: a population-based retrospective study.BMC primary care · 2026Article
- The intersection of emergency care, human resources and health equity: a comparative mapping of policy and systems in Australia, Canada, Rwanda and South Africa.BMJ global health · 2026Article
- Scaling emergency care capacity during concurrent public health and humanitarian crises: outcomes of WHO-ICRC basic emergency care course implementation in the Republic of Moldova.International journal of emergency medicine · 2026Article
- Status of post-crash response systems and policy indicators in the WHO African region: a cross-sectional descriptive study.BMJ public health · 2026Article
- Article
- Impact of the WHO emergency care toolkit on mortality in Zambia: an implementation-effectiveness hybrid study.BMJ global health · 2025Article
20 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo estimate the global and national burden of emergency conditions, and compare them to emergency care usage rates.
methodsWe coded all 291 Global Burden of Disease 2010 conditions into three categories to estimate emergency burden: conditions that, if not addressed within hours to days of onset, commonly lead to serious disability or death; conditions with common acute decompensations that lead to serious disability or death; and non-emergencies. Emergency care usage rates were obtained from a systematic literature review on emergency care facilities in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), supplemented by national health system reports.
findingsAll 15 leading causes of death and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) globally were conditions with potential emergent manifestations. We identified 41 facility-based reports in 23 countries, 12 of which were in LMICs; data for 17 additional countries were obtained from national or regional reports on emergency usage. Burden of emergency conditions was the highest in low-income countries, with median DALYs of 47 728 per 100 000 population (IQR 45 253-50 085) in low-income, 25 186 (IQR 21 982-40 480) in middle-income and 15 691 (IQR 14 649-16 382) in high-income countries. Patterns were similar using deaths to measure burden and excluding acute decompensations from the definition of emergency conditions. Conversely, emergency usage rates were the lowest in low-income countries, with median 8 visits per 1000 population (IQR 6-10), 78 (IQR 25-197) in middle-income and 264 (IQR 177-341) in high-income countries.
conclusionsDespite higher burden of emergency conditions, emergency usage rates are substantially lower in LMICs, likely due to limited access to emergency care.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What 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.