Impact of New Orleans Saints Football Games on Internal Medicine Admissions

Abstract

Background: Various studies have reported a decrease in emergency department admissions in correlation with major sporting events. However, these studies limit the investigation of selected variables to the 24-hour periods on game days. For our study, we assessed the impact of New Orleans Saints football team games on medical admissions on game days and also on post-game days. Methods: We collected Saints game results from the 2013-2014 to 2019-2020 season and admissions data from 3 local hospitals during the same 7-year period. We compared the average daily census of game days vs non-game days as our control group using a 2-sample t test with unequal variances. Results: The results demonstrate a statistically significant reduction in the average number of internal medicine admissions on game days (19.6%, P=0.0001). This reduction in admissions was not observed on post-game days (5.84%, P>0.05). On post-game days following a Saints victory, we found a statistically significant increase in the average number of admissions compared to when the team lost the previous day (18.2%, P=0.0105). Conclusion: To our knowledge, the relationship between a recurring major sporting event and inpatient internal medicine admissions has not been previously quantified. Our study of the impact of the New Orleans Saints football games on internal medicine admissions provides insights into the relationship between social sporting events and health outcomes in the city. While our results may not be directly generalizable to other locations—particularly those that are not in a National Football League team market—we showed that during a 7-year period, Saints football games correlated with a 19.6% decrease in internal medicine admissions on the day of the game. This finding suggests that Saints games may serve as a protective factor associated with decreased negative health outcomes among residents in the city.