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. 2017 Dec 10;4(1):e000215.
doi: 10.1136/bmjresp-2017-000215. eCollection 2017.

London ambulance source data on choking incidence for the calendar year 2016: an observational study

Matthew J Pavitt  1 , Joanne Nevett  2 , Laura L Swanton  1 , Matthew D Hind  1 , Michael I Polkey  1 , Malcolm Green  1 , Nicholas S Hopkinson  1
Affiliations

London ambulance source data on choking incidence for the calendar year 2016: an observational study

Matthew J Pavitt et al. BMJ Open Respir Res. .

Abstract

Introduction: Complete foreign body airway obstruction is a life-threatening emergency, but there are limited data on its epidemiology.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of data collected routinely from London Ambulance Service calls coded as being for choking was undertaken for the calendar year of 2016.

Results: There were 1916 choking episodes of significant severity to call for emergency assessment in London during 2016, 0.2% of total calls requiring an ambulance response, an average of 5.2 per day. The incidence increased at the extremes of age. Calls coded as choking occurred at times consistent with lunch and dinner and less frequently at breakfast. Peak incidence occurred at Sunday lunchtimes and on Wednesday evenings.

Conclusions: Choking is a substantial health problem for Londoners to seek emergency assistance. Choking is more frequent at the extremes of age with a higher incidence at lunch and dinner time. Greater public awareness of choking and its management could help to prevent avoidable deaths.

Keywords: clinical epidemiology; respiratory muscles.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Spider diagram showing choking incident count by day of week and hour of day. Vertical axis showing number of events. Circumferential axis showing time in 24 hours clock. Coloured lines relate to designated days of the week. There is a peak incidence of choking events on weekdays at 12:00 to 14:00 and 16:00 to 20:00, with a spike in incidence on Sunday at 13:00 (pink).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Incidence of choking in London, UK, by gender per 1000 population by age group. Incidence of choking per estimated age band adjusted for population numbers using data from the Office of National Statistics (www.ons.gov.uk). Total incidence of choking in the 90+ age group is higher than that of the individual genders because 35% of the total choking events for this group the gender was not documented.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Number of choking events in London, UK, by month for the calendar year of January 2016–January 2017. The mean number of choking events per month was 159.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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