The Duration of Fasting in Ramadan Affects the Admissions to the Emergency Department

Abstract

Aim: One of the ways that Muslims worship in Ramadan is by fasting. People who are fasting may prefer to receive health services in the period between iftar and pre-dawn meal owing to the concern that their fasting may be interrupted with the medical interventions to be administered. For this reason, the workload of emergency departments that serve for continuous 24 h may increase in Ramadan. We have not encountered any study analyzing the comparison of emergency visits in the seasons when the period between iftar and pre-dawn is the shortest and longest. We aimed to compare the characteristics of visits to the adult emergency department between those in the year 2016 that included the longest fasting time and those in the year 2000 that included the shortest fasting time.Materials and Methods: Patient visits made in the Ramadan months in the years 2000 and 2016 were included in the study.Results: There was a statistically significant difference between the total number of visits to the emergency department in the Ramadan months of 2000 and 2016 (p<0.001). Moreover, there was a statistically significant difference in terms of the numbers of complaints between the Ramadan months of 2000 and 2016 (p<0.001).Conclusion: The results of our study can be useful for the management of emergency department and risk estimation.