Table 5.
Emergency department utilisation characteristics
| Internal Medicine | Gynaecology | |||||||
| GW (n = 856) |
TW (n = 698) |
GM (n = 273) |
TM (n = 282) |
p1) | GW (n = 195) |
TW (n = 125) |
p1) | |
| Time since onset of complaints | n.s. | n.s. | ||||||
| Mean (hours) | 84 | 121 | 157 | 123 | 78 | 119 | ||
| Standard deviation | 193 | 378 | 1041 | 490 | 186 | 390 | ||
| Transportation (%) | *** | n.s. | ||||||
| Private | 49.9 | 81.0 | 51.6 | 74.1 | 88.2 | 92.8 | ||
| General ambulance service | 15.5 | 4.0 | 10.6 | 6.4 | 3.1 | 1.6 | ||
| Mobile intensive care unit | 29.2 | 12.8 | 34.1 | 15.6 | 5.6 | 2.4 | ||
| Emergency ambulance | 5.0 | 1.5 | 2.4 | 3.9 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Police | 0.1 | 0 | 1.3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Time of presentation (%) | ||||||||
| Time of day (%) | *** | n.s. | ||||||
| 8 am – 8 pm | 70.6 | 56.0 | 68.8 | 49.3 | 73.3 | 62.4 | ||
| 8 pm – 8 am | 29.1 | 43.6 | 31.2 | 50.7 | 26.7 | 37.6 | ||
| Day of week (%) | *** | n.s. | ||||||
| Weekday | 66.2 | 53.8 | 69.1 | 55.3 | 58.5 | 56.0 | ||
| Weekend | 33.8 | 46.2 | 30.9 | 44.7 | 41.5 | 44.0 | ||
| Need for emergency treatment as perceived by physician | *** | n.s. | ||||||
| Mean | 6 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | ||
| Standard deviation | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | ||
| Need for admission (%) | *** | n.s. | ||||||
| Yes | 37.9 | 14.3 | 42.1 | 23.0 | 17.9 | 12.8 | ||
| Medication given or prescribed | *** | n.s. | ||||||
| Yes | 47,3 | 54,8 | 42,1 | 50,2 | 43,4 | 44,9 | ||
| Need for translation (%) | *** | *** | ||||||
| Yes | 0.5 | 36.3 | 0 | 34.6 | 1.1 | 36.3 | ||
| Interpreter2) (%) | *** | *** | ||||||
| Accompanying relative/friend | 0.4 | 32.6 | 0 | 24.8 | 1.0 | 33.6 | ||
| Nurse | 0.1 | 0.7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Physician | 0 | 0.4 | 0 | 0.4 | 0 | 2.4 | ||
| Other hospital personnel | 0 | 0.7 | 0 | 0.4 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Length of medical history (number of words) | n.s. | n.s. | ||||||
| Mean | 13 | 12 | 12 | 11 | 12 | 14 | ||
| Standard deviation | 9 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 8 | ||
GW = German women, GM= German men, TW = Turkish women, TM = Turkish men; 1)Kruskal-Wallis test; ** p ≤ 0.01, *** p ≤ 0.001; 2)Differences in percentages results from missing values.