Seasonal variations in out of hospital cardiopulmonary arrest
J P Pella, J Sirelb, A K Marsdenc, S M Cobbeb
a Department of Public
Health Medicine, Greater Glasgow Health Board, Dalian House, 350 St
Vincents Street, Glasgow G3 8YU, UK, b Department of Medical Cardiology, Glasgow Royal
Infirmary, Glasgow, UK, c Scottish Ambulance Service, Edinburgh, UK
Correspondence to: Dr Pell email: jill.pell{at}glasgow-hb.scot.nhs.uk
Accepted for publication 30 July 1999
OBJECTIVE
To
determine whether there are seasonal variations in survival following
out of hospital cardiopulmonary arrest.
DESIGNProspective
cohort study using the Heartstart (Scotland) database.
SETTINGAll of Scotland.
PATIENTS10 890
people who suffered out of hospital cardiopulmonary arrest in the
summer or winter between December 1988 and August 1997 inclusive.
INTERVENTIONUnivariate
comparisons of 5406 arrests occurring in summer with 5484 in winter, in
terms of patient characteristics, management, and survival using
2 and Mann-Whitney U tests. Multivariate analysis of the
association between season and survival following adjustment for case mix.
MAIN OUTCOMES
MEASURESSurvival to discharge from hospital,
survival pre-admission, in-hospital survival.
RESULTSOnly 6% of
people who arrested in winter survived to discharge, compared to 8% of
those who arrested in summer (odds ratio 0.77, p < 0.001). People
who arrested in winter had a poorer risk profile in that they were
older, more likely to arrest at home, less likely to have a witness,
and less likely to receive defibrillation. However, after adjustment
for case mix, people who arrested in winter were still 19% less likely
to survive compared to those who arrested in summer. Deaths
pre-admission were significantly higher in winter (odds ratio 1.18, p < 0.05) but in-hospital deaths were not.
CONCLUSIONSPeople who
suffer cardiopulmonary arrest in winter have a significantly lower
likelihood of surviving. This is, in part, caused by the higher
frequency of a number of recognised risk factors. However, their
prognosis remains poorer even after adjustment for these factors.
Keywords: cardiopulmonary arrest; cardiopulmonary resuscitation; seasonal variations; ischaemic heart disease
© 1999 by Heart
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Barnett, A. G, Dobson, A. J, McElduff, P., Salomaa, V., Kuulasmaa, K., Sans, S., for the WHO MONICA project,
(2005). Cold periods and coronary events: an analysis of populations worldwide. J. Epidemiol. Community Health
59: 551-557
[Abstract] [Full Text] -
Aylin, P., Morris, S., Wakefield, J., Grossinho, A., Jarup, L., Elliott, P.
(2001). Temperature, housing, deprivation and their relationship to excess winter mortality in Great Britain, 1986-1996. Int J Epidemiol
30: 1100-1108
[Abstract] [Full Text]
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
- Citation Map
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
