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Predictors of ambulance use in patients with acute myocardial infarction in Australia

journal contribution
posted on 2006-01-01, 00:00 authored by Debra KerrDebra Kerr, D Holden, J Smith, A-M Kelly, S Bunker
AIMS: To determine ambulance transport rates and investigate predictors for ambulance use by patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in Australia. METHODS: A prospective, cross-sectional descriptive survey using structured interviews. It included patients who were admitted to two hospitals (Western, Bendigo, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) with AMI between 1 October 2004 and 31 March 2005, and data were collected by semistructured interview and medical record review. Data were analysed by descriptive statistics, univariate and multivariate analysis using SPSS. RESULTS: 105 patients were interviewed. 48 (46%) participants called for an ambulance as their initial medical contact. Participants who called for an ambulance had a shorter interval between symptom onset and presentation to hospital than those who did not (non-ambulance participants)(median 2.1 v 7.8 h; p = 0.001). Predictors of ambulance transport were older age (p = 0.008), symptom onset on the weekend (p = 0.022), presence of sharp chest pain (p = 0.011), self-administered anginine (p = 0.007), symptom onset at home (p = 0.027) and having a lower income (

History

Journal

Emergency medicine journal

Volume

23

Pagination

948-952

Location

London, Eng.

eISSN

1472-0213

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2006, BMJ

Issue

12

Publisher

BMJ