A research report submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the
Witwatersrand, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree
of
Master of Science in Medicine
in
Emergency Medicine
Dubai, 2017 / Introduction: The month of Ramadan is characterised by changes in dietary and
lifestyle habits by those fasting, which could result in medical issues that may
have an impact on the utilisation of the Emergency Department (ED) over this
time period.
Methods: ED attendance was compared during the Ramadan period to a
specified Control period, and included a comparison of demographic and clinical
features of patients, nationalities, diagnosis profile, time of admission and number
of ED admissions. This was a retrospective, observational study set in a private
hospital in Dubai, UAE, which included patients aged 16 years and older.
Results: A total of 1766 patients presented to the ED, of which 822 (46.5%) were
admitted during Ramadan, and 944 patients (53.5%) during the Control period.
Although significantly more female patients attended the ED during the Control
period, there were no differences in the ages nor the nationalities of the patients.
Only one significant difference was noted in diagnoses, which was in the skinrelated
category (p = 0.0012). Significantly more patients were seen per day
during the Control period compared to Ramadan (p = 0.0057). A significant
change in the time of ED attendance for MENA region patients was noted during
Ramadan (p=0.0036) with more patients presenting during the night-time, which
was not observed in non-MENA region patients.
Conclusions: The significant shift in presentation towards the night was most
notable in patients from the MENA region, and therefore most likely to be due to
fasting. In addition, changes in certain diagnoses and gender distribution over the
study period may assist in future ED management planning during Ramadan. / MT2017
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/23308 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Kilian, Patricia |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf, application/pdf |
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