ArticleEmergency medicine journal : EMJ2022
Tendency to call an ambulance or attend an emergency department for minor or non-urgent problems: a vignette-based population survey in Britain.
Article in Emergency medicine journal : EMJ, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Article
- Article
- Article
- Why Do Patients Opt for the Emergency Department over Other Care Choices? A Multi-Hospital Analysis.The western journal of emergency medicine · 2024Article
- Public Beliefs About Accessibility and Quality of Emergency Departments in Germany.The western journal of emergency medicine · 2024Article
- The Use of Medical Services for Low-Acuity Emergency Cases in Germany: Protocol for a Multicenter Observational Pilot Study.JMIR research protocols · 2024Article
- Evaluating a new emergency department avoidance service for older people: patient and relative experiences.Emergency medicine journal : EMJ · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThere are concerns about high levels of demand for emergency health services. The aim was to identify the characteristics of the British population with a tendency to contact emergency medical services and EDs for minor or non-urgent problems.
methodsA survey of the British adult population in 2018. Six vignettes were constructed about illness in adults (cough/sore throat or diarrhoea/vomiting), injury in adults (sore rib or back pain) and fever in children (occurring weekday or weekend).
resultsThe response rate was 42%, with 2906 respondents. 11% (319/2716) of respondents selected to contact an ambulance and 43% ED, mainly for the vignettes about fever in children and sore rib. Males, people from ethnic minority communities and older people had a tendency to contact emergency services for minor problems. Tendency to call an ambulance was also characterised by 'low resources' (manual or unskilled occupations, no car, low health literacy), worry that a symptom might be serious, distress (feeling overwhelmed by health problems) and frequent use of EDs. For EDs, there was an attraction to EDs because of availability of tests.
conclusionWhereas use of emergency ambulances for minor or non-urgent problems appeared to be driven by people's lack of resources, including lack of transport, use of EDs appeared to be driven by their attractive characteristic of offering tests quickly.
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