Nearly 140 million Americans visit the emergency department each year for reasons ranging from broken bones to a simple cough.
The number of visits to hospital emergency rooms has been rising steadily for decades, a trend that reflects an aging population with more pressing care needs and an increasingly sharp decline in the number of Americans receiving preventative care to stave off disease.
While it’s the place to go in the event of an urgent health problem, millions of people go for non-urgent issues, such as mild headaches or minor burns, which overcrowd waiting rooms, bog down overworked staff and ultimately delay access to treatment. for people who need more urgent help.
And relying on emergency rooms is costly, both for people and for medical institutions, which are legally obligated to stabilize a patient who comes in regardless of his or her ability to pay.
An analysis from the CDC, the 2021 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, shows the top 10 reasons people visit the emergency room each year – with one condition rising above the rest.
Below, DailyMail.com lists the most common reasons why people seek care at the emergency room.
Nearly 140 million Americans visit the emergency department every year, and 40 million of those visits are for injuries or poisonings
Stomach and abdominal pain
Stomach pain is the most common reason for emergency department (ED) visits, accounting for more than 12.4 million per year.
It’s also the top reason children 15 and younger go to the emergency room, with 1.3 million visits annually.
It was the top complaint for visits among men and women ages 15 to 64, with 9.4 million annual visits, and was responsible for the second most visits among men and women ages 65 and older, with 1.8 million visits per year.
Abdominal pain can be caused by benign conditions such as constipation or norovirus, but can be serious and in some cases require emergency care.
Appendicitis (an infected appendix) or a blocked intestine – which can be fatal – both require emergency surgery.
Chestpain
Chest pain can indicate a life-threatening emergency, such as a heart attack, which is fatal in about 10 percent of cases.
People complaining of chest pain make up an estimated 7.8 million of the total number of visits.
It was the second most commonly cited reason for men and women aged 15 to 64, with an estimated total of 6 million emergency room visits.
The causes of chest pain can range from panic attacks to heart attacks and a blood clot in the lungs.
If this chest pain is accompanied by dizziness, shortness of breath, nausea, irregular heartbeat, and/or sweating, a trip to the hospital is usually a wise idea.
Shortness of breath
The third most common reason for a hospital visit was shortness of breath, estimated at 5.9 million.
Heart and lung problems were the main causes of shortness of breath. This included heart attacks, asthma, low blood pressure, pneumonia and panic attacks.
The complaint ranked third for men aged 15 to 64 going to the emergency department, and fourth for women in that same age range – with a total of more than 3.3 million visits.
The symptom was not ranked among people in younger age groups.
Cough
With 4.6 million people complaining of coughing, the condition ranked fourth among the top reasons for a hospital visit.
Flu and colds are the most common reasons for a bad cough, but it can also be linked to more serious problems, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which affect about 16 million American adults.
A cough was responsible for 2.4 million hospital visits by men and women under the age of 15.
It was the eighth most cited reason for men and women aged 15 to 64, with an estimated 1.9 million visits. However, it was not among the top complaints among adults aged 65 and older.
Fever
The fifth most common medical problem was fever, which if left untreated can cause organ failure and death.
A body temperature higher than 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit is considered a fever, although the risk of organs malfunctioning or the brain becoming damaged increases dramatically if the fever exceeds 104 degrees.
It can be caused by a wide range of viral and bacterial infections, including influenza and tuberculosis.
Fever was only a common reason for emergency visits among men and women under the age of 15, accounting for more than 3.4 million visits.
Although fever can be treated with an anti-inflammatory medication such as Advil, it is often accompanied by other conditions that require more specialized care, such as a course of antibiotics or an antiviral drug.
Headache
In sixth place was headache, which was responsible for 3.9 million hospital visits per year.
The causes are numerous: from dehydration and stress to jaw and muscle problems and problems with the eyes.
It was the third most common reason for women aged 15 to 64 and the seventh most common for men in the same age range, with an estimated 2.9 million visits per year.
Meanwhile, it ranked only eighth among women 65 and older, with about 384,000 visits per year. There was no commonly mentioned reason among men and women under 15 years of age.
When headaches become severe, they can be considered migraines, which in addition to a throbbing, debilitating headache, can cause nausea, vomiting, sound and light sensitivity, and vision problems.
About 47 million Americans have a migraine disorder.
General pain
Pain in an unspecified location on the body was the seventh highest reason for an emergency department visit, accounting for 3.4 million visits per year.
This pain can occur anywhere on the body, including the skeletal, muscular, nervous, endocrine, cardiovascular, lymphatic, respiratory, digestive, urinary, or reproductive systems.
For women aged 15 to 64, this was the seventh most common reason for a visit and the fourth most common for men in that age range.
Overall, 15- to 65-year-olds accounted for about 2.7 million of the visits, while seniors over 65 accounted for about 246,000 visits.
Backache
Back pain was the eighth most common reason for visiting the emergency room, with an estimated 3 million visits per year.
Back pain is an umbrella term that includes muscle pain, shooting or stabbing pain or a burning sensation.
For men and women aged 15 to 64, back problems were the sixth most common reason, with an estimated 2.2 million visits per year.
Back complaints came in fifth place among women aged 65 years and older and sixth place among men aged 65 years and older.
Vomit
Vomiting accounted for the ninth highest number of hospital visits, with 2.8 million visits per year.
Causes may include: pregnancy, food poisoning, a gastrointestinal infection, a reaction to medications or overeating.
It was only one of the most mentioned complaints (fourth place) for people under the age of 15, accounting for more than 1.2 million visits.
Mental health crisis
In tenth place, mental health problems were responsible for 2.5 million hospital visits per year.
This may include suicidality, hallucinations, restlessness, delusions, panic attacks and persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness.
Symptoms and problems related to psychological and mental disorders only occurred in men between 15 and 64 years old, with an estimated total of 993,000 visits, the fifth most common reason in this age range.
Emergency room visits for a mental health problem are becoming increasingly common, especially among children, teens and young adults.
A shortage of mental health treatment options for children means that many in crisis must wait weeks or months for longer-term mental health care.
Other sources have estimated the number of emergency room visits for mental health problems much higher, suggesting the CDC’s estimate could be an undercount.
A 2023 report in JAMA noted that child mental health visits increased from 4.8 million in 2011 to 7.5 million in 2020, for an annual increase of eight percent.
