Those crazy Brits

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By lind1101 on February 4, 2012 1:46 PM 5 Vote 1 Vote

In full disclosure, I will not be confirming or denying that citizens of Britain are in fact crazy.

Rather I'll be discussing this article I came across on BBC.com.

Great headline, right?
"Patients 'MORE LIKELY TO DIE' if admitted at weekends"!!!

It caught my attention to say the least and it wasn't soon after that my new-found psychological criticism cried foul. Aren't they jumping the gun a bit? Perhaps there are a few Scientific Principles that missed the boat on this decision destination.

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My first thought was, there HAS to be a 3rd variable! Simply being admitted to a hospital from Friday night thru Sunday night cannot give you a one-up on dying.
Hello Scientific Principle # 2, 'Correlation vs. Causation,' glad you could show up.

I should mention that the article did list two explanations for the higher death rate with admissions over the weekend: 1- less staff, lab techs, experts working on the weekend and 2- people with less serious injuries will generally wait until after the weekend to go to the doctor if symptoms persist.

While their claim that it's more likely for more serious cases to go to the hospital seems valid, I thought there could be more behind that rationale. Is there an increase of more serious accidents over the weekend? What causes these accidents?

To test this, I wanted to find out what day(s) of the week and what time of day proved to have the highest amount of car accidents. It turns out nights and weekends are the worst.
Et voila, my 3rd factor: more serious/fatal car accidents take place over the weekend.


Can you think of other factors that occur over the weekend that could influence why more people die if they're admitted to a hospital over the weekend?


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Author Profile Page venka056 | February 5, 2012 12:28 PM | Reply

Fatal accidents during weekends could also be due to driving under influence. People are likely to party with friends on Friday and Saturday nights and not everyone follows the rule of not to drive while being drunk. Also, during winter roads being foggy or icy could be a big factor.

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Author Profile Page schn0763 | February 6, 2012 12:34 AM | Reply

The weekend is a time that most people take to enjoy their time off from the busy work/school week that most of us endure every monday to friday afternoon. Many celebrate this by going to parties, bars, or different kinds of leisurely events. At said events people tend to drink or do different kinds of drugs. Anytime one partakes is "using a substance" their ability to make good decisions diminishes, when this happens people can be put in very dangerous situations like physical altercations which can lead in extreme cases to death. I'm not saying that if you get in a fight that you are going to die but your chances of it ending well are not very good. The weekend can be a very unpredictable time and this can lead to more people dying in this time period rather than during the week.

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Author Profile Page stone603 | February 7, 2012 2:26 PM | Reply

As in the summer, weekends have less structure for students and it may be that the increasing freedoms increases participation in risky activities as it also influences criminal activity. Not saying that it is just students, but people in general tend to be more outgoing when they do not have their daily restrictions in life, and weekends give this freedom. I do agree with the first two comments that substance abuse plays a heavy factor in the increased chance of accidents leading to death.

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Author Profile Page strom393 | February 7, 2012 8:45 PM | Reply

I would have to agree with the previous comments. Over the weekend people enjoy their free time and relax from their long week of work, school, or whatever it may be. Alcohol may be a mayo factor in the death rates increasing over the weekend. Alcohol creates multiple accidents even outside of driving under the influence. Also I believe that there is more movement on the weekend. People are running errands, stopping by friends, doing repair work around the house and increasing the chances of accidents occurring on the road as well during any daily activity.

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Author Profile Page wlas0006 | February 9, 2012 12:03 AM | Reply

Awesome post Allison! This is exactly how principals of scientific thinking are applied to real world phenomenon. People love to jump to conclusions and often go with the one explanation that comes to mind first and seems plausible.

That might be fine in some cases, but when it involves life and death it pays to think a little deeper about these things.

There are likely many factors that increase risk of dying on weekends besides poor hospital care. Drinking and alcohol use likely are higher which could lead to more accidents. Chronically ill people might find it more difficult to get assistance and support from companions on weekends or might be left alone longer on weekends. In large cities there may be more traffic congestion, noise and pollution on weekends which could prevent people from getting to emergency care in time.

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This page contains a single entry by lind1101 published on February 4, 2012 1:46 PM.

There are Two Sides to Every Brain was the previous entry in this blog.

Self-Control - Nature or Nurture? is the next entry in this blog.

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