Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Falls represent an increasingly frequent source of injury among older adults. Identification of fall risk factors in geriatric patients may permit the effective utilization of scarce preventative resources. The objective of this study was to identify independent risk factors associated with an increased 6-month fall risk in community-dwelling older adults discharged from the emergency department (ED). ⋯ Falls, recurrent falls, and injurious falls in community-dwelling elder ED patients being evaluated for non-fall-related complaints occur at least as frequently as in previously described outpatient cohorts. Nonhealing foot sores, self-reported depression, not clipping one's own toenails, and previous falls are all associated with falls after ED discharge.
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Comparative Study
Injuries in youth football: national emergency department visits during 2001-2005 for young and adolescent players.
Limited research exists describing youth football injuries, and many of these are confined to specific regions or communities. The authors describe U.S. pediatric football injury patterns receiving emergency department (ED) evaluation and compare injury patterns between the younger and older youth football participants. ⋯ National youth football injury patterns are similar to those previously reported in community and cohort studies. Older participants have a significantly higher injury risk, especially with TBI.
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The objective was to assess symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) associated with witnessing unsuccessful out-of-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on a family member. ⋯ Witnessing a failed CPR attempt of a loved one in an out-of-hospital location may be associated with displaying symptoms of PTSD in the early term of the bereavement period. While preliminary, these data suggest that the relationship exists even after controlling for other potential factors that may also affect the propensity for displaying such symptoms, such as the suddenness and location of the patient's cardiac arrest.
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The objective was to investigate the association between statin therapy and mortality in emergency department (ED) patients with suspected infection. ⋯ Patients who were admitted to the hospital with infection and received statin therapy while hospitalized had a significantly lower in-hospital mortality compared to patients who did not receive a statin.
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The North Carolina Disease Event Tracking and Epidemiologic Collection Tool (NC DETECT) is a near-real-time database of emergency department (ED) visits automatically extracted from hospital information system(s) in the state of North Carolina. The National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS) is a retrospective probability sample survey of visits to U. S. hospital EDs. ⋯ Rates and proportions of disease groups are similar. Similarity of NC DETECT rates and proportions to NHAMCS provides support for the face and content validity of NC DETECT. The development of statewide near-real-time ED databases is an important step toward the collection, aggregation, and analysis of timely, population-based data by state, to better define the burden of illness and injury for vulnerable populations.