Socioeconomic status and risk of in-hospital cardiac arrest

Resuscitation. 2022 Aug:177:69-77. doi: 10.1016/j.resuscitation.2022.05.014. Epub 2022 May 23.

Abstract

Aim: To investigate how socioeconomic status was associated with the risk of in-hospital cardiac arrest in Denmark.

Methods: We conducted a matched case-control study based on data from nationwide registries in Denmark. A total of 3,449 cases with in-hospital cardiac arrest in 2017 and 2018 were matched at the index time based on age and sex with up to 10 controls from the total Danish population (background controls) and a hospitalized patient population (hospitalized controls), respectively. Household income, household assets, and education were used as measures of socioeconomic status. Conditional logistic regression was used to assess the association between socioeconomic status and the risk of in-hospital cardiac arrest.

Results: Across all analyses of cases and controls, high household income, high household assets, and higher education were associated with decreased odds of in-hospital cardiac arrest. In the analyses of cases and background controls, high household income was associated with 0.45 (95% CI: 0.40, 0.52) times the odds of in-hospital cardiac arrest compared to low household income, which was similar for household assets. Compared to basic education, higher education was associated with 0.50 (95% CI: 0.43, 0.58) times the odds of in-hospital cardiac arrest. The results attenuated marginally after adjustment for comorbidities. Similar albeit attenuated findings were observed in the analyses of cases and hospitalized controls.

Conclusions: In this matched case-control study, high socioeconomic status was associated with lower odds of in-hospital cardiac arrest compared to low socioeconomic status. The findings were consistent across household income, household assets, and education and persisted after adjustment for comorbidities. Strategies are needed to address the socioeconomic inequalities observed in the risk of in-hospital cardiac arrest.

Keywords: Assets; Education; In-hospital cardiac arrest; Income; Socioeconomic status.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Case-Control Studies
  • Heart Arrest* / epidemiology
  • Hospitals
  • Humans
  • Registries
  • Risk Factors
  • Social Class*
  • Socioeconomic Factors