Acute cardiac care & resuscitationResearch article
Geographic inequalities in prehospital critical care for cardiac arrest: a spatial analysis of deprivation and service configuration
- spatial analysis
- three neighbouring ambulance services in England
- explicit spatial modelling
Authors' conclusion
Observed inequalities in prehospital critical care attendance are explained by spatial factors and the geographic configuration of services rather than deprivation alone. Optimising the location of prehospital critical care assets represents an opportunity to reduce inequalities.
Study context
- Population
- OHCA patients treated by three neighbouring ambulance services in England between 2018 and 2023patients, covering 9,639 neighbourhoods
- Participants
- 57,601 patients
- Comparison
- Relationship between neighbourhood deprivation and attendance of prehospital critical care teams to OHCA patients, accounting for the geographical distribution of prehospital critical care bases
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Prehospital critical care attendance
median neighbourhood attendance
25.0%
Further findings
Distance to the nearest prehospital critical care base and attendance
- Distance to the nearest prehospital critical care base was significantly associated with attendance
Spatial autocorrelation and clustering of attendance
- Strong evidence of positive spatial autocorrelation and clustering of attendance
Neighbourhood deprivation and attendance after accounting for spatial dependence
- Accounting for spatial dependence removed the association with neighbourhood deprivation
- Clinical variables, distance to nearest prehospital critical care base and a daytime emergency call were the major drivers of attendance
Original publication
Geographic inequalities in prehospital critical care for cardiac arrest: a spatial analysis of deprivation and service configuration. Resuscitation. Published 11 April 2026. doi:10.1016/j.resuscitation.2026.111093
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it