Survival Lower for Asian Versus White Individuals With OHCA

WEDNESDAY, July 26, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Asian individuals with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) have similar rates of bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) as White individuals, but have lower survival rates, according to a study published online July 26 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Kashvi Gupta, M.D., M.P.H., from Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City, Missouri, and colleagues compared the rates of bystander CPR and survival for 278,989 OHCAs among Asian and White individuals during 2013 to 2021. The rates of bystander CPR, survival to discharge, and favorable neurological survival were compared.

Overall, 5.3 percent of OHCAs occurred in Asians. The researchers found that Asian individuals were older than White individuals (67.0 ± 17.6 versus 62.8 ± 16.9 years) and were less likely to have drug overdose as the cause of OHCA (1.3 versus 6.6 percent) and shockable arrest rhythm (19.2 versus 22.4 percent). Layperson bystander CPR rates were similar for Asian and White individuals (42.6 versus 42.1 percent; adjusted relative risk for Asian individuals, 0.99; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.97 to 1.02; P = 0.69); however, Asian individuals had lower rates of survival to discharge (8.2 versus 10.3 percent; adjusted relative risk, 0.92; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.86 to 0.98; P = 0.006) and favorable neurological survival (6.5 versus 8.7 percent; adjusted relative risk, 0.85; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.79 to 0.91; P < 0.001).

"Our findings that Asian, as compared with White, individuals with OHCA have lower rates of overall survival and favorable neurological survival do raise potential concerns about racial disparities," the authors write.

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