SynthesisInternal and emergency medicine2020
What is the prevalence of frequent attendance to emergency departments and what is the impact on emergency department utilisation? A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Internal and emergency medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 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.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed.
- Factors associated with persistent high use of emergency departments: a nationwide retrospective cohort study.BMJ open · 2026Article
- Experiences and Perceptions of Patient Watch, a Rural Telehealth Case Management Model, for Frequent Presenters to the Emergency Department: A Longitudinal Mixed Methods Study.The Australian journal of rural health · 2026Article
- Enhancing System Empathy Within a UK Emergency Department: A Feasibility Interprofessional Priority Setting Exercise.Journal of evaluation in clinical practice · 2026Article
- Review
- Identifying subgroups of frequent emergency department users: a latent class analysis with linked healthcare utilisation, cost and mortality outcomes in the UK.BMJ public health · 2026Article
- Sociodemographic and Health Behaviour of Frequent, Avoidable Emergency Department Users in Ontario, Canada: A Population-based Descriptive Study.The western journal of emergency medicine · 2025Article
- Improvement in safety measures to reduce ED returns.BMJ open quality · 2025Article
- Exploring the reliability and profile of frequent mental health presentations using different methods: An observational study using statewide ambulance data over a 4-year period.The Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry · 2025Observational
- Article
- Reducing patients' rate of frequent attendance through a training intervention for physicians.BMC medical education · 2024Article
- Supporting High-impAct useRs in Emergency Departments (SHarED) quality improvement: a mixed-method evaluation.BMJ open quality · 2023Article
- Observational
- Prevalence and characteristics of frequent presenters to Auburn Hospital emergency department.Emergency medicine Australasia : EMA · 2022Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Patients who frequently attend to emergency departments are a varying group and have complex health care needs. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to determine the prevalence of patients who have frequent attendance to emergency departments. A systematic review was performed in line with PRISMA guidelines. A database search was conducted, and studies were included in the final review if they analysed a population of frequent attendance. Meta-analysis was performed only on population-based studies to estimate prevalence. The search yielded 2922 nonduplicate publications, of which 27 were included in the meta-analysis. The most common definition used for frequent attendance was greater than three presentations a year. The proportion of people who frequently attended as a percentage of the total study population ranged from 0.01 to 20.9%, with emergency department presentations from frequent attenders ranging from 0.2 to 34%. When limiting the definition of frequent attendance to greater than three visits in a 12-month period, people who frequently attended contributed between 3 and 10% [pooled estimate 6%; CI 4-7%] of emergency department presentations and between 12 and 34% [pooled estimate 21%; CI 15-27%] of total emergency department presentations. Meta-analysis found substantial heterogeneity between estimates [I
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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.