ABSTRACT
The literature pertaining to patient characteristics from outdoor music festivals is predominately reported from single descriptive events. These events demonstrate a higher incidence of patient presentations when compared to other types of mass gatherings. Outdoor music festivals rely on on-site care and clinicians to assess and manage patients. However little is known about characteristics of patient presentations across a large number of outdoor music festivals within the Australian context. As such, this research aimed to describe the characteristics of patient presentations from Australian outdoor music festivals.
The setting for this research was 25 outdoor music festivals across four Australian states in 2010. Patient information from these events was obtained from Patient Care Records from St John Ambulance Australia. The patient information from these records was entered into a de-identifiable database using the Ranse and Hutton minimum data set. Data was then analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics in SPSS.
In total 5,000 patients presented to the 25 events for clinical assessment and management. This research found that females present in greater numbers to on-site care than males. In addition, it was found that the majority of females present with whereas males presented to on-site care with injuries. The majority of patients transferred to hospital where those who presented with alcohol and/or other drugs related concerns.
This is the first research that explored patient characteristics at multiple outdoor music festivals in Australia. The research has highlighted some key results that may inform public health policy and assist clinical providers and event managers in the planning of health services at future events.
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