Medical Emergency Calls Clinical Trial
Official title:
Social Inequalities in Emergency Call and Emergency Response Patterns
Background:
Inequality in access to healthcare is a challenge internationally. Despite that medical
emergency calls can be considered as access point to pre-hospital emergency care and
hospital admission in emergency situations, no data on inequality in access to healthcare
through emergency calls is reported in the international literature.
Study aims:
The aim of this study is two-fold:
1. to evaluate the association between socio-economic characteristics of citizens and
first-time emergency call in the Capital Region of Denmark
2. to evaluate the association between socio-economic characteristics of citizens with an
emergency call and the priority level of the response provided by the emergency medical
dispatch center in the Capital Region of Denmark.
Method: Observational register based study of adult citizens in the Capital Region of
Denmark. Educational level, household income and employment are used as socioeconomic
indicators. The unique civil registration number will be used to link data from the
Emergency Medical Dispatch Center with data from the Civil Registration System, Danish
registers on personal labor market affiliation, the Danish Populations Education Register,
the Danish Income Statistics Registry and the national patient registry. Logistic regression
models will be used for the association between socio economic indicators and first time
emergency calls and the association between socioeconomic indicators and the priority level
of the response provided.
Status | Completed |
Enrollment | 80829 |
Est. completion date | July 2016 |
Est. primary completion date | July 2016 |
Accepts healthy volunteers | No |
Gender | Both |
Age group | 18 Years and older |
Eligibility |
Inclusion Criteria: - Medical emergency calls registered in the EMS database in the Capital region of Denmark, in which the individual patients live in the capital region of Denmark and have data from central registries (civil registration number and socioeconomic variables of interest)registered. - Citizens =18 years of age Study part 1: * All medical emergency calls in the period 12/1-2011-11/30-2013 with a civil registration number Study part 2: * All medical emergency calls with a medical contact cause (chest pain, intoxication, breathing difficulties, abdominal pain/back pain, altered level of consciousness, seizures and unconscious/lifeless adult) in the period 12/1-2011-11/30-2013 with a civil registration number and a complete contact cause registered. Exclusion Criteria: - Calls from citizens with no civil registration number recorded - Medical emergency calls from citizens <18 years old - Emergency calls for citizens outside RegionH - Non first time calls |
Observational Model: Cohort, Time Perspective: Retrospective
Country | Name | City | State |
---|---|---|---|
Denmark | Emergency Medical Services | Copenhagen |
Lead Sponsor | Collaborator |
---|---|
Emergency Medical Services, Capital Region, Denmark | The Danish National Institute of Public Health |
Denmark,
Type | Measure | Description | Time frame | Safety issue |
---|---|---|---|---|
Primary | Emergency call | First time emergency calls registered electronically at the EMS Copenhagen concerning citizens with recidence in the Capital Region of Denmark. The information will be obtained from the database at the EMS Copenhagen. | 12/1-2011 - 11/30-2013 (up to 24 months) | No |
Primary | Emergency response level | Emergency response level provided by emergency medical dispatchers during emergency calls. This outcome will be divided into four levels: 1) Red (immediate response with lights and siren); 2) Orange (immediate response without lights and siren); 3) Yellow/green (non-urgent response with appropriate available resource); 4) Blue (medical advice). Information about emergency responce level is registered electronically and will be obtained from the database at the EMS Copenhagen. | 12/1-2011 - 11/30-2013 (up to 24 months) | No |