Elsevier

Resuscitation

Volume 187, June 2023, 109805
Resuscitation

Clinical paper
Use of healthcare services before and after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resuscitation.2023.109805Get rights and content
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open access

Abstract

Introduction

Knowledge about the use of healthcare services in patients experiencing out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is limited. We aimed to describe and compare the use of healthcare by OHCA survivors two years before and one year after cardiac arrest.

Methods

Adult patients with OHCA of medical cause, who survived >30 days, were identified in the Norwegian Cardiac Arrest Registry. The Norwegian Patient Registry, The Cause of Death Registry, and The Norwegian Registry for Primary Healthcare provided data on survival and the use of healthcare services. We investigated the use of primary, specialist and mental healthcare, as well as rehabilitation services.

Results

In 2015–2018, 13,112 OHCA cases were identified; 1435 (14%) patients survived >30 days (6.8/100,000 patients/year). The proportion of patients in the cohort that used primary healthcare each month increased form 43% before to 69% after OHCA to (p < 0.001). We found a doubling of monthly healthcare contacts in specialist healthcare (from 26% to 57%, p < 0.001) and yearly contacts for mental healthcare (from 3% to 8%, p > 0.001). The observed increases in primary, specialist and mental healthcare use started two weeks, six months, and eight months before OHCA, respectively. Half of the patients had contact with primary healthcare services on the same day as the cardiac arrest. Two out of five patients were registered for rehabilitation after OHCA.

Conclusion

The use of primary, specialist and mental healthcare services increased before OHCA and remained significantly higher the year after OHCA. Less than half of the patients surviving cardiac arrest were registered for rehabilitation.

Keywords

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest
Healthcare utilization
Morbidity
Epidemiology

Abbreviations

OHCA
Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest
PIN
Personal identification number
CPR
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation
ICD-10
International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th edition
ICPC-2
International Classification of Primary Care 2nd edition diagnoses
IQR
Interquartile range
CPC
Cerebral performance category
pp
Percentage points
GP
General practitioner
PTSD
Post-traumatic stress disorder
ERC
European Resuscitation Council

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