MedWire News: Just the fear of H1N1 influenza (swine flu), even in the absence of the disease itself, is enough to cause overcrowding in emergency departments (EDs), results from a US study suggest.

Lead researcher William McDonnell (University of Utah, Salt Lake City) explained that episodic surges in patient volumes may compromise an EDs' ability to deliver adequate care.

He added: “Media reports play an important role in informing the public about potential health threats, but the effects of media-induced anxiety on ED patient volumes is unclear.”

To investigate, McDonnell and team reviewed data from 18 Utah hospitals regarding the number of ED visits during three 1-week periods: a control week before the onset of public concern about swine flu; a week of heightened public concern about swine flu before the disease was present in the community (fear week); and a week during a period of active pandemic disease (flu week).

The researchers found that, compared with the control week, the proportion of patients visiting EDs during the fear week was increased by a significant 7.0%, with an increase of 19.7% in pediatric visits and 1.0% in adult visits.

The flu week also showed a significant 6.6% increase in ED visits, compared with the control week, with pediatric visits increased by 10.6% and adult visits increased by 4.8%.

Speaking at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, McDonnell concluded: “At a time of heightened public concern regarding flu, but little disease prevalence, study EDs experienced a significant increase in patient volumes due to an influx of pediatric patients.

“Parental anxiety regarding flu increased ED visits by pediatric patients to a greater extent than the epidemic of actual disease that followed.”

He added: “As we continue developing our public health emergency planning programs, we must ensure that responsible news media coverage of public health issues provides the benefits of a free and vigorous press, without unnecessarily harming the public health.”

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