Acute cardiac care & resuscitationCase-control study
Differences in health care utilization prior to cardiac arrest by shockable and non-shockable presenting rhythms: a case control study
- matched case-control study
- Age, sex and geographic population-matched controls
- matched 4:1 to controls
Authors' conclusion
Shockable and non-shockable OHCA show high rates of health care utilization prior to cardiac arrest. However, there were important differences in health care utilization between the shockable and non-shockable groups.
Study context
- Population
- Patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) from 2009 to 2019 in the British Columbia (BC) Cardiac Arrest Registry, presenting with shockable or non-shockable rhythms, and matched controlsOHCA patients matched 4:1 to controls · shockable OHCA patients 3,461 · non-shockable OHCA patients 11,470
- Comparison
- OHCA patients with shockable and non-shockable rhythms vs matched controls
- shockable groupn = 3,461
- non-shockable groupn = 11,470
- Outcome
- Hospital admissions or emergency department (ED) visits
- Follow-up
- 3 years prior to arrest
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Each group vs controlsOdds ratio (95% CI)
shockable group
1.74(1.60–1.88)
non-shockable group
3.13(2.99–3.29)
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Secondary outcomes
All health care encounters (hospitalization, emergency department (ED) or outpatient visits)
- More common in both shockable and non-shockable cardiac arrests, with a higher rate of cardiovascular (CV) encounters
Non-CV encounters
- Non-shockable cardiac arrests had higher relative rates of non-CV encounters
Biweekly rates of hospital and emergency visits leading up to OHCA · 6-24 weeks prior to arrest
- Increased for both groups, rising at 6-24 weeks prior to arrest
Original publication
Differences in health care utilization prior to cardiac arrest by shockable and non-shockable presenting rhythms: a case control study. Resuscitation. Published 25 March 2026. doi:10.1016/j.resuscitation.2026.111072
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it