Impact of football matches on number of visits to an emergency department
Ballesteros Peña S, Fernández Aedo I, Vallejo de la Hoz G
Affiliation of the authors
Organización Sanitaria Integrada Bilbao-Basurto, Bizkaia, Spain. Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Bizkaia, Spain. BioCruces-Bizkaia Health Research Institute, Barakaldo, Spain. Organización Sanitaria Integrada Barrualde-Galdakao, Bizkaia, Spain.
Ballesteros Peña S, Fernández Aedo I, Vallejo de la Hoz G. Impact of football matches on number of visits to an emergency department. Emergencias. 2020;32:345-8
Summary
Objective.
To analyze the impact of a local football team’s matches on patient demand for hospital emergency department care in Bilbao, in the Spanish province of Biscay.
Methods.
Retrospective analysis. We retrieved the number of patients coming to the emergency department on the days and hours of matches played by Bilbao’s Athletic Club during the 2017–2019 and 2018–2019 seasons and compared the caseloads with those on the same days of the weeks before and after the matches (control days).
Results.
Ninety-five match days were studied. Nineteen of the matches were considered key events. Visits by adults to the emergency department fell by a statistically significant 7.5% (95% CI, 4.6%–11.6%) when matches were being played in Bilbao. The decrease was 8.4% (95% CI, 5.3%–12.6%) when matches were played away. The decrease in pediatric emergencies was 32.7% (95% CI, 7.4%–68.3%) in the hours while important matches were played outside the city.
Conclusions.
The impact of football on the number of visits to our hospital emergency department was modest, except during important away matches.
