Key result
Admission during national scientific meetings is not linked to worse neurological outcomes in OHCA patients.
Why the study?
The impact of the national meeting effect on outcomes of OHCA patients, considering meeting location and regional variation, had not been investigated in previous studies.
Does admission during national scientific meetings worsen favorable one-month neurological outcomes in adult OHCA patients?
Observational (n=40,849)
Yes
Does admission during national scientific meetings worsen favorable one-month neurological outcomes in adult OHCA patients?
Odds Ratio: 1.03 (95% CI 0.83–1.28)
Absolute Event Rate: 1.7% vs 1.6%
The "national meeting effect" (worse outcomes during major academic meetings) was not observed in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Japan.
No meeting-day association with worse OHCA outcomes observed; hypothesis-generating and should not yet change staffing practices.
The "national meeting effect" refers to worse patient outcomes when medical professionals attend academic meetings and hospitals have reduced staffing. The aim of this study was to examine differences in outcomes of patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) admitted during, before, and after meeting days according to meeting location and considering regional variation of outcomes, which has not been investigated in previous studies. Using data from a nationwide, prospective, population-based, observational study in Japan, we analyzed adult OHCA patients who underwent resuscitation attempts between 2011 and 2015. Favorable one-month neurological outcomes were compared among patients admitted during the relevant annual meeting dates of three national scientific societies, those admitted on identical days the week before, and those one week after the meeting dates. We developed a multivariate logistic regression model after adjusting for confounding factors, including meeting location and regional variation (better vs. worse outcome areas), using the "during meeting days" group as the reference. A total of 40,849 patients were included in the study, with 14,490, 13,518, and 12,841 patients hospitalized during, before, and after meeting days, respectively. The rates of favorable neurological outcomes during, before, and after meeting days was 1.7, 1.6, and 1.8%, respectively. After adjusting for covariates, favorable neurological outcomes did not differ among the three groups (adjusted OR (95% CI) of the before and after meeting dates groups was 1.03 (0.83-1.28) and 1.01 (0.81-1.26), respectively. The "national meeting effect" did not exist in OHCA patients in Japan, even after comparing data during, before, and after meeting dates and considering meeting location and regional variation.
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Yumoto et al. (2019) conducted an observational in Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) (n=40,849). Admission during national scientific meeting days vs. Admission on identical days the week before and one week after the meeting dates was evaluated on Favorable one-month neurological outcomes (OR 1.03, 95% CI 0.83-1.28). Admission during national scientific meeting days was not associated with worse one-month neurological outcomes in OHCA patients compared to the week before (OR 1.03; 95% CI 0.83-1.28).
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