Though no time is a good time to have a heart attack, a new study reveals that patients visiting the hospital at night or on the weekend for a heart attack have higher mortality than those visiting during regular hours.
The research, published online by the BMJ, also shows that emergency treatment takes longer for patients visiting outside normal business hours, suggesting that "thousands of extra deaths" each year are a result of factors that occur after patients arrive at the hospital.
According to the study authors, who are based at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, heart attacks are the leading cause of death across the world. In the US, 1 million people have a heart attack each year and 400,000 die from coronary heart disease.
Though previous studies have suggested that visiting the hospital outside of regular hours for a heart attack could increase mortality risks, until this latest study, no official reviews or analyses had been conducted.
The researchers therefore analyzed 48 studies from the US, Canada and Europe, which included over 1.8 million participants, to determine any patterns for heart attack patients visiting the hospital during off-hours.
Off-hours heart attack visits 'result in 6,000 extra deaths'
After taking into account differences in design and quality among the studies, the researchers found significant increases in mortality.
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