Epidemiological characteristics and trends of pre-hospital emergency care in Handan, China from 2011 to 2024

Feng Tian^1,2,3Saicong Lu^1,2,3,4Chengcheng Bi^1,2,3,4Xian Wang^1,2,3,5Xu Zhang^1,2,3,4Zhenjie Yang⁶Longqiang Zhang⁷Jie Li⁷Penghui Li^1,2,3,8*Haifang Zhang^7*

• ¹Hebei Key Laboratory of Medical Data Science, Handan, China
• ²Institute of Biomedical Information, Hebei University of Engineering, Handan, China
• ³Public Health Research Center, Hebei University of Engineering, Handan, China
• ⁴School of Information and Electrical Engineering, Hebei University of Engineering, Handan, China
• ⁵School of Information and Electrical Engineering, Handan, China
• ⁶Handan Emergency Rescue Command Center, Handan, Hebei, China
• ⁷Handan Emergency Rescue Command Center, Handan, China
• ⁸School of Medicine, Hebei University of Engineering, Handan, China

Background: Pre-hospital emergency medical service (EMS) is essential in providing acute care services. This study aimed to analyze the characteristics and trends of pre-hospital EMS in Handan, China from 2011 to 2024 and provide references for the government and medical institutions to optimize EMS. Methods: Pre-hospital EMS data from 2011 to 2024 in Handan were obtained from the database of Handan Emergency Rescue Command Center. The GIS based analysis was used to reveal the spatial distribution and regional differences in pre-hospital EMS demands. The average annual growth rate (AAGR) was used to calculate the AAGR of the overall pre-hospital EMS demand and the pre-hospital diseases. Chi-square test was used to analyze gender distributions of disease spectrum regarding pre-hospital EMS. The Mann-Kendall (MK) trend test was employed to assess the trends of pre-hospital EMS demand, age distribution and disease occurrence patterns. Results: A total of 613,066 pre-hospital EMS cases from 2011 to 2024 met inclusion criteria. Over the past 14 years, Handan's pre-hospital EMS demand increased significantly by 3.11-fold (p < 0.001). The percentages of EMS patients aged 61 to 70 and over 71 years old increased significantly (p < 0.01), in contrast, the percentage of EMS patients aged 21 to 30 and 31 to 40 years old decreased significantly (p < 0.01). According to ICD-10 codes, the demands per 1,000,000 people for pre-hospital care increased for 3 diseases, and injury-related diseases accounted for the largest proportion of pre-hospital emergencies. Demands because of injury-related disease, cerebrovascular diseases and pneumonia caused by unspecified organisms increased significantly (at least p < 0.05). As for This is a provisional file, not the final typeset article injury-related disease, cerebrovascular diseases, heart disease and pneumonia caused by unspecified organisms, men significantly outnumbered women, although the overall demands for these diseases were high in urban areas, the demands rose quickly in peripheral counties. Conclusions: Pre-hospital EMS demand in Handan has increased substantially during the past 14 years. More medical resources should be dedicated to pre-hospital EMS due to the increased pre-hospital EMS demand. Gender, age and region distributions in diseases regarding pre-hospital EMS should also be considered.