Data.xlsx_The effects of Ramadan on clinical consultation frequency in a Rohingya refugee camp, Bangladesh

<b>Abstract</b>In 2017 hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled Myanmar to camps for Forcefully Displaced Myanmar Nationals in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Peace Winds Japan and Dhaka Community Hospital Trust have jointly run a primary health center in Camp 14 since 2018. Our objective was to determine the impact of the month of Ramadan on clinical presentation rates at PHCs in the Rohingya refugee camps. Patient information, including diagnoses and medications from medical records, was collected between January 2020 and August 2021. We compared occurrence rates of five health events: acute respiratory infection, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), gastritis, antenatal care,, and postnatal care. A total of 57,034 consultations recorded in 2020 were analyzed, with 6.7% occurring during Ramadan period and 93.3% occurring during the control period. During Ramadan, there were on average 113 consultations per day, compared to 163 during the control period. The odds ratio of having new patients was lower (OR=0.349; 95% CI =0.297-0.411; P &lt; 0.001) in the Ramadan period. There were no significant differences in consultations in terms of age, sex and surgical procedure. The regression analysis shows that there were significantly fewer patients with NCDs during the Ramadan period, with an odds ratio of 1.776 (95% CI=1.292 - 2.440; P &lt; 0.0004) whereas more patients with gastrointestinal problem were consulted during Ramadan (OR=0.875, 95% CI=0.804 -0.952, P=0.0019). The retrospective review of data showed that the number of consultations decreased by 31.6% during Ramadan, while the rate of new patients in full consultations decreased by 62%. Lower activity levels during the day may have influenced this result. NCDs were relatively non-urgent, the main motive for consultations was to continue taking medication, and there were significantly fewer patients during Ramadan.