The effect of Ramadan on forensic case admissions to the emergency department: A five-year retrospective analysis in Turkiye.

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the patients who were evaluated as forensic cases in the emergency department during Ramadan according to the month before and after Ramadan and to examine the effect of this process on forensic case management. Methodology: This study was conducted retrospectively using patient data from the emergency department of Nevsehir State Hospital in Turkiye. Within the scope of the study, patients admitted to the emergency department between 2020 to 2024 who were recorded as forensic cases were evaluated. The demographic data of the patients, time of admission, reason for admission, discharge status in the emergency department and diagnoses of inpatients were analyzed. Results: In the study, 4020 forensic cases were evaluated. 69.4% of the patients were male. The mean age was 32.57±17.52 years. There were more admission (38.8%) after Ramadan. The most common reason for admission was traffic accidents (47.5%). There was no significant difference in the number of patient admissions between the defined periods (p=0.078). The number of patient admissions was significantly higher between the hours of Iftar to Imsak (p<0.001). Conclusion: Comparison between before and after Ramadan, the number of patient admissions evaluated as forensic cases increased significantly after Ramadan. There was no significant difference between the hours of admission. It was observed that there was a significant increase in traffic accident-related admissions close to Iftar time.