BACKGROUND: We wanted to study the incidence, distribution and characteristics of paediatric out-of-hospital emergency care on a population level. This knowledge could ameliorate the design and education of emergency medical services and their personnel. METHODS: We studied all (n = 1863) emergency medical services responses and the @entity1 records for paediatric @entity1 (age 0-16 years) in Helsinki, Finland (population 603,968, paediatric population 92,742) during a 12-month period (2012). @entity1 characteristics, diagnoses, time intervals, medical treatments, procedures, vital measurements and outcome of out-of-hospital treatment were available for analysis. RESULTS: The incidence of emergency medical services -treated paediatric out-of-hospital @entity341 was 3.8/1000 inhabitants and 20/1000 1-16-year-old inhabitants. This formed 4.5% of all emergency calls, while @entity1 have a threefold share of the population (15%). Falls, dyspnoea, @entity410 and @entity4968 account for half of all @entity341 . Few @entity1 suffered from a life-threatening condition or @entity130 . @entity1167 or need for advanced life support measures (e.g. intubation) was rare. After evaluation by the emergency medical services, only half of the @entity1 (56%) needed ambulance transportation to hospital. Only 30 (3.7%) of the non-transported @entity1 made an unpremeditated visit to the emergency department after the original contact with the emergency medical services. All of them were well upon arrival to the emergency department. CONCLUSION: Paediatric out-of-hospital @entity341 are infrequent and have specific characteristics differing from the adult population. The design and training of emergency medical services and their personnel should focus on evaluation and management of the most frequent situations.

Out-of-hospital paediatric XXXX : a prospective, population-based study.

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['children', 'patients', 'patient', 'Patient'] @entity410 :: ('MESH:D012640', 'Disease') :: ['seizures'] @entity341 :: ('MESH:D004630', 'Disease') :: ['emergencies'] @entity4968 :: ('MESH:D011041', 'Disease') :: ['poisonings'] @entity1167 :: ('MESH:D006323', 'Disease') :: ['Cardiac arrest'] @entity130 :: ('MESH:D014947', 'Disease') :: ['trauma']
@entity341 :: (MESH:D004630,Disease) :: ['emergencies']
