Epidemiology of prehospital emergency medical service use in Korean children

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to elucidate the epidemiology of pediatric patients transported by the National 119 Rescue Services in Korea. METHODS We enrolled all pediatric patients (<16 years old) who used the National 119 Rescue Services in Korea between January 2006 and December 2008, and analyzed the 119 ambulance patient care record databases. RESULTS The total number of the cases was 238,644 for 3 years. The median age was 6 years old and 59.0% were male, and the 2- to 5-year-old group was the largest (31.0%). The peak transport times were in the afternoon (from 12:00 p.m. to 17:59 p.m., 36.3%), on Saturday and Sunday (15.9% and 15.7%), and in summer (June to August, 27.3%). The ratio of disease versus injury as the cause of the transports was 42.3% vs. 57.7%. Among the 16 metropolitan cities and provinces, Gyeonggi (25.7%), Seoul (17.6%), and Incheon (7.0%) account for almost half of the all transported children. Regarding the annual transport rates per 100,000 children standardized by age, and gender to the Korean child population, Jeju was the largest (1,650.2) followed by Gangwon (1,201.3), and Jeonnam (1,178.1). CONCLUSION This report presents comprehensive epidemiologic data of pediatric patients transported by 119 rescue services in Korea.