Rapid response systems Long-term outcomes after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in relation to socioeconomic status

Aims: This study aimed to examine whether socioeconomic dierences exist in long-term outcomes after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). Methods: We included 2309 30-day OHCA survivors 30 years of age from the Danish Cardiac Arrest Registry, 2001-2014, divided in tertiles of household income (low, medium, high). Absolute probabilities were estimated using logistic regression for 1-year outcomes and cause-specific Cox regression for 5-year outcomes. Dierences between income-groups were standardized with respect to age, sex, education and comorbidities. Results: High-income compared to low-income patients had highest 1-year (96.4% vs. 84.2%) and 5-year (87.6% vs. 64.1%) survival, and lowest 1 year (11.3% vs. 7.4%) and 5-year (13.7% vs. 8.6%) risk of anoxic brain damage/nursing home admission. The corresponding standardized probability dierences were 8.2% (95%CI 4.7-11.6%) and 13.9% (95%CI 8.2-19.7%) for 1-and 5-year survival, respectively; and-4.5% (95%CI-8.2 to-1.2%) and-5.1% (95%CI-9.3 to-0.9%) for 1-and 5-year risk of anoxic brain damage/nursing home admission, respectively. Among 831 patients < 66 years working prior to OHCA, 72.1% returned to work within 1 year and 80.8% within 5 years. High-income compared to lowincome patients had the highest chance of 1-year (76.4% vs. 58.8%) and 5-year (85.3% vs. 70.6%) return to work with the corresponding absolute probability dierence of 18.0% (95%CI 3.8-32.7%) for 1-year and 9.4% (95%CI-3.4 to 22.3%) for 5-year. Conclusion: Patients of high socioeconomic status had higher probability of long-term survival and return to work, and lower risk of anoxic brain damage/nursing home admission after OHCA compared to patients of low socioeconomic status.