Article contents
Validation of a Belgian Prediction Model for Patient Encounters at Belgium’s Largest Public Cultural Mass Gathering
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 June 2021
Abstract
To compare actual patient presentation rates from Belgium’s largest public open-air cultural festival with predictions provided by existing models and the Belgian Plan Risk Manifestations model.
Retrospectively, actual patient presentation rates gathered from the Ghent Festivities (Belgium) during 2013–2019 were compared to predicted patient presentation rates by the Arbon, Hartman, and PRIMA models.
During 7 editions, 8673000 people visited the Ghent Festivities; 9146 sought medical assistance resulting in a mean patient presentation rate (PPR) of 1.05. The PRIMA model overestimated the number of patient encounters for each occasion. The other models had a high rate of underprediction. When comparing deviations in predictions between the PRIMA model to the other models, there is a significant difference in the mean deviation (Arbon: T = 0.000, P < 0.0001, r = −0.8701; Hartman: T = 0.000, P < 0.0001, r = −0.869).
Despite the differences between the predictions of all 3 models, our results suggest that the PRIMA model is a valid tool to predict patient presentations to IEHS during public cultural MG. However, to substantiate the PRIMA model even further, more research is needed to further validate the model for a broad range of MG.
- Type
- Original Research
- Information
- Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , June 2022 , pp. 1128 - 1133
- Copyright
- © Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 2021
References
- 1
- Cited by