Evaluation of the Relationship Between Socio-Economic Level and Severity of Emergency

Background; Social Class has shown relation with admissions at Emergency Departments. To assess whether there is a relationship between the level of triage and the social class of patients who attend the emergency department and whether there are other variables that can modulate this association. Methods Observational study with 1000 patients was carried out between May and July 2018 in the Emergency Department of the University Hospital Arnau de Vilanova in Lleida. Sociodemographic variables such as age, gender, country of origin and marital status were analyzed. The triage level and the main explanatory variable was social class. Social class was calculated based on the CSO-SEE 2012 scale. Results 49.4% were male and the average age was 51.7 years. Most of the patients (66.6%) attended the emergency department under their own volition and the most common triage levels were level III or Emergency (45%). There is a significant relationship between age and triage level. The younger patients had a lower triage level (p <0.001). The percentage of patients with lower social class who attended the emergency department for minor reasons was 42% higher compared to the rest of the patients (RR = 1.42; 1.21-1.67 95% CI, p <0.001). Conclusions; Patients with a lower socioeconomic class go to the Emergency Department for less serious pathologies.