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Table 2 Patient assessment and association with age

From: Initial assessment, level of care and outcome among children who were seen by emergency medical services: a prospective observational study

 

Age ≤ 3 years n = 335

Age > 3 years n = 316

P

Gender - n(%)

 Female

133 (39.7)

147 (46.5)

0.030

Dispatcher priority - n(%)

  

<0.001

 Priority 1

253 (75.5)

196 (62.0)

 

 Priority 2

75 (22.4)

113 (35.8)

 

 Priority 3

7 (2.1)

7 (2.2)

 

Dispatch classification indexa - n(%)

 Respiratory distress

102 (30.4)

38 (12.0)

<0.001

 Fever

64 (19.1)

25 (7.9)

<0.001

 Convulsions ongoing/ terminated

49 (14.6)

25 (7.9)

0.146

 Major trauma high energy/ large bleeding/ headinjury

32 (9.6)

36 (11.4)

0.243

 Minor trauma exremity/ wound/ fracture

19 (5.7)

48 (15.2)

<0.001

Time of day - n(%)

  

0.015

 08:00-16:00

103 (30.7)

118 (37.3)

 

 16:00-24:00

166 (49.6)

151 (47.8)

 

 24:00-08:00

66 (19.7)

47 (14.9)

 

Medical historyb - n(%)

 No medical history

230 (68.7)

199 (63.0)

0.015

 Common cold with asthma/ asthma

25 (7.5)

17 (5.4)

0.954

 Congenital disability

15 (4.5)

27 (8.5)

0.159

 Febrile non-epileptical convulsions, absences

24 (7.2)

7 (2.2)

0.168

 Allergies

11 (3.3)

15 (4.7)

0.178

Primary vital signs - median (25th, 75th percentile)

 Respiratory rate/min (164, 75)c

30 (24,40)

20 (16,22)

<0.001

 Saturation % (103, 40)

98 (97,100)

99 (98,100)

0.001

 Pulse rate/min (113, 40)

140 (120,160)

98 (83,117)

<0.001

 Temperature °C (126, 93)

37.5 (36.7,38.8)

37.1 (36.7,37.8)

<0.001

Level of consciousness according to RETTS-p - n(%) (58, 49)

  

<0.001

 Alert

204 (73.6)

234 (87.7)

 

 Tired/ Crummy

47 (17.0)

15 (5.6)

 

 GCS 11-13

19 (6.9)

12 (4.5)

 

 GCS ≤ 10/ Ongoing seizure

7 (2.5)

6 (2.2)

 

EMS nurse triage level according to RETTS-p - n(%) (99, 47)c

  

0.134

 Red

19 (8.1)

21 (7.8)

 

 Orange

52 (22.0)

61 (22.7)

 

 Yellow

93 (39.4)

120 (44.6)

 

 Green

72 (30.5)

67 (24.9)

 

Assessed condition according to RETTS-pd - n(%) (100,47)c

 Trauma (head, thorax, extremity, burn)

35 (14.9)

82 (30.5)

<0.001

 Respiratory difficulty (dyspnoea, shortness of breath)

64 (27.2)

22 (8.2)

<0.001

 Convulsions

55 (23.4)

26 (9.7)

0.002

 Fever

29 (12.4)

17 (6.3)

0.023

 Abdominal pain

5 (2.1)

35 (13.0)

<0.001

EMS nurse Assessment - n(%)

 Assessed to pED

223 (66.6)

231 (73.1)

0.002

 Renewed contact within 72he

10 (8.9)

6 (7.1)

0.511

Drug administration - n(%)f

 EMS nurse administration

114 (34.0)

116 (36.7)

0.085

 Antipyretics

42 (12.5)

43 (13.6)

0.198

 Local anesthetics

18 (5.4)

25 (7.9)

0.092

 Oxygen

18 (5.4)

12 (3.8)

0.292

 Analgesics

3 (0.9)

26 (8.2)

<0.001

 Steroids

16 (4.8)

17 (5.4)

0.441

Mortality - n(%)

 < 30 days

3 (0.9)

2 (0.6)

0.404

  1. aDispatch index can consist of one or two indexes
  2. bThe most common medical history, a patient can have more than one condition
  3. cMissing vital signs, triage level and assessed condition for ≤ 3 year and over 3 years respectively
  4. dThe most common assessed conditions according to RETTS-p
  5. ePatients initially non-conveyed that visited the pED within 72 hours
  6. fThe most common administered drugs, a patient could have been administered more than one