Characteristics of all patients arrived within 24 hours by emergency medical services use
| Patient characteristics | Overall (n=3555) | EMS (n=2417) | No EMS (n=1138) | P value |
| N (%) | N (%) | N (%) | ||
| Age, median (IQR) | 69 (60–79) | 71 (61–81) | 66 (57–76) | <0.001 |
| Female | 1484 (41.7) | 1043 (43.2) | 441 (38.8) | 0.01 |
| Ethnicity | ||||
| Chinese | 2680 (75.4) | 1811 (74.9) | 869 (76.4) | 0.08 |
| Malay | 576 (16.2) | 408 (16.9) | 168 (14.8) | |
| Indian | 233 (6.6) | 161 (6.7) | 72 (6.3) | |
| Others | 66 (1.9) | 37 (1.5) | 29 (2.5) | |
| Medical history | ||||
| TIA | 168 (4.7) | 114 (4.7) | 54 (4.7) | 0.97 |
| Stroke | 849 (23.9) | 589 (24.4) | 260 (22.8) | 0.32 |
| Hypertension | 2934 (82.5) | 2020 (83.6) | 914 (80.3) | 0.02 |
| Diabetes mellitus | 1484 (41.7) | 1015 (42.0) | 469 (41.2) | 0.66 |
| Ischaemic heart disease | 826 (23.2) | 625 (25.9) | 201 (17.7) | <0.001 |
| Atrial fibrillation | 687 (19.3) | 562 (23.3) | 125 (11.0) | <0.001 |
| Valvular heart disease | 98 (2.8) | 72 (3.0) | 26 (2.3) | 0.24 |
| Peripheral arterial disease | 107 (3.0) | 79 (3.3 | 28 (2.5) | 0.19 |
| Hyperlipidaemia | 3217 (90.5) | 2174 (89.9) | 1043 (91.7) | 0.11 |
| Smoking status* | ||||
| Never | 2106 (60.1) | 1450 (61.1) | 656 (58.0) | 0.13 |
| Former smoker | 502 (14.3) | 340 (14.3) | 162 (14.3) | |
| Current smoker | 897 (25.6) | 584 (24.6) | 313 (27.7) | |
| Office-hour arrival† | 1638 (46.0) | 1098 (45.4) | 540 (47.5) | 0.23 |
| Baseline NIHSS* | ||||
| Median (IQR) | 5 (2–13) | 8 (3–16) | 3 (1–6) | <0.001 |
| 0–4 | 1296 (36.5) | 661 (27.3) | 635 (55.8) | <0.001 |
| 5–15 | 1082 (30.4) | 792 (32.8) | 290 (25.5) | |
| 16+ | 559 (15.7) | 519 (21.5) | 40 (3.5) | |
| Unknown | 618 (17.4) | 445 (18.4) | 173 (15.2) |
*50 missing values in smoking status, 618 missing values in NIHSS.
†Office-hour arrival: weekdays 7 am to 6 pm.
EMS, emergency medical services; NIHSS, National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale; TIA, transient ischaemic attack.