TY - JOUR
T1 - Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest
T2 - Does rurality decrease chances of survival?
AU - Ringgren, Kristian Bundgaard
AU - Kragholm, Kristian Hay
AU - Lindgren, Filip Lyng
AU - Jacobsen, Peter Ascanius
AU - Jørgensen, Anne Juul
AU - Christensen, Helle Collatz
AU - Mills, Elisabeth Helen Anna
AU - Jakobsen, Louise Kollander
AU - Yonis, Harman
AU - Folke, Fredrik
AU - Lippert, Freddy
AU - Torp-Pedersen, Christian
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Background: Geographical setting is seldomly taken into account when investigating out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). It is a common notion that living in rural areas means a lower chance of fast and effective helpwhen suffering a time-critical event. This retrospective cohort study investigates this hypothesis and compares across healthcare-divided administrative regions. Methods: We included only witnessed OHCAs to minimize the risk that outcome was predetermined by time to caller arrival and/or recognition. Arrests were divided into public and residential. Residential arrests were categorized according to population density of the area in which they occurred. We investigated incidence, EMS response time and 30-day survival according to area type and subsidiarily by healthcare-divided administrative region. Results: The majority (71%) of 8,579 OHCAs were residential, and 53.2% of all arrests occurred in the most densely populated cell group amongst residential arrests. This group had a median EMS response time of six minutes, whereas the most sparsely populated group had a median of 10 minutes. Public arrests also had a median response time of six minutes. 30-day survival was highest in public arrests (38.5%, [95% CI 36.9;40.1]), and varied only slightly with no statistical significance between OHCAs in densely and sparsely populated areas from 14.8% (95% CI 14.4;15.2) and 13.4% (95% CI 12.2;14.7). Conclusion: Our study demonstrates that while EMS response times in Denmark are longer in the rural areas, there is no statistically significant decrease in survival compared to the most densely populated areas.
AB - Background: Geographical setting is seldomly taken into account when investigating out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). It is a common notion that living in rural areas means a lower chance of fast and effective helpwhen suffering a time-critical event. This retrospective cohort study investigates this hypothesis and compares across healthcare-divided administrative regions. Methods: We included only witnessed OHCAs to minimize the risk that outcome was predetermined by time to caller arrival and/or recognition. Arrests were divided into public and residential. Residential arrests were categorized according to population density of the area in which they occurred. We investigated incidence, EMS response time and 30-day survival according to area type and subsidiarily by healthcare-divided administrative region. Results: The majority (71%) of 8,579 OHCAs were residential, and 53.2% of all arrests occurred in the most densely populated cell group amongst residential arrests. This group had a median EMS response time of six minutes, whereas the most sparsely populated group had a median of 10 minutes. Public arrests also had a median response time of six minutes. 30-day survival was highest in public arrests (38.5%, [95% CI 36.9;40.1]), and varied only slightly with no statistical significance between OHCAs in densely and sparsely populated areas from 14.8% (95% CI 14.4;15.2) and 13.4% (95% CI 12.2;14.7). Conclusion: Our study demonstrates that while EMS response times in Denmark are longer in the rural areas, there is no statistically significant decrease in survival compared to the most densely populated areas.
KW - EMS response time
KW - Geography
KW - OHCA
KW - Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest
KW - Population density
KW - Survival
U2 - 10.1016/j.resplu.2022.100208
DO - 10.1016/j.resplu.2022.100208
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 35146464
AN - SCOPUS:85137573626
VL - 9
JO - Resuscitation Plus
JF - Resuscitation Plus
SN - 2666-5204
M1 - 100208
ER -