Who uses emergency departments inappropriately and when - a national cross-sectional study using a monitoring data system

Table 1 Number, distribution (%) and rate of appropriate and inappropriate emergency department attendances by demographics and repeat attendances

	Appropriate		Inappropriate		Rate of inappropriate attendances per 100 attendances	P
	n = 13,294,819		n = 1,761,276
	n	%	n	%
Age group (years)
0 to 15	2,770,259	20.84	490,360	27.84	15.04
16 to 24	1,823,858	13.72	293,820	16.68	13.87
25 to 39	2,504,987	18.84	399,913	22.71	13.77
40 to 54	2,165,611	16.29	301,399	17.11	12.22
55 to 64	1,127,313	8.48	123,346	7.00	9.86
65 to 84	2,145,985	16.14	133,584	7.58	5.86
85 plus	756,806	5.69	18,854	1.07	2.43	<0.001
Gender
Male	6,714,111	50.50	938,131	53.26	12.26
Female	6,580,708	49.50	823,145	46.74	11.12	<0.001
IMD quintile
Least deprived	1,955,886	14.71	256,624	14.57	11.60
Fourth most deprived	2,199,109	16.54	285,731	16.22	11.50
Third most deprived	2,539,095	19.10	335,480	19.05	11.67
Second most deprived	2,989,953	22.49	408,789	23.21	12.03
Most deprived	3,610,776	27.16	474,652	26.95	11.62	<0.001
Repeat attendances ^a
1	6,195,506	46.60	948,869	53.87	13.28
2	3,267,400	24.58	422,056	23.96	11.44
3	1,589,839	11.96	175,976	9.99	9.97
4	824,571	6.20	86,701	4.92	9.51
5	450,448	3.39	42,387	2.41	8.60
6 to 10	674,692	5.07	59,888	3.40	8.15
11 to 20	193,523	1.46	15,484	0.88	7.41
21 to 50	77,540	0.58	7,224	0.41	8.52
51 or more	21,300	0.16	2,691	0.15	11.22	<0.001

^aRepeat attendances are individuals who attend the emergency department numerous times, not including planned follow-up attendances. IMD, Index of Multiple Deprivation.

ISSN: 1741-7015