Nighttime is associated with decreased survival and resuscitation efforts for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests: a prospective observational study

BACKGROUND: Whether temporal differences alter the clinical outcomes of patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) remains inconclusive. Furthermore, the relationship between time of day and resuscitation efforts is unknown. METHODS: We studied adult OHCA patients in the Survey of Survivors after Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest in the Kanto Region (SOS-KANTO) 2012 study from January 2012 to March 2013 in Japan. The primary variable was 1-month survival. The secondary outcome variables were prehospital and in-hospital resuscitation efforts by bystanders, emergency medical services personnel, and in-hospital healthcare providers. Daytime was defined as 0701 to 1500 h, evening was defined as 1501 to 2300 h, and night was defined as 2301 to 0700 h. RESULTS: During the study period, 13,780 patients were included in the analysis. The patients with night OHCA had significantly lower 1-month survival compared to the patients with daytime OHCA (night vs. daytime, adjusted odds ratio (OR) 1.66; 95 % confidence interval (CI), 1.34–2.07; P < 0.0001). The nighttime OHCA patients had significantly shorter call-response intervals, bystander CPR, in-hospital intubation, and in-hospital blood gas analyses compared to the daytime and evening OHCA patients (call-response interval: OR 0.95 and 95 % CI 0.93–0.96; bystander CPR: OR 0.85 and 95 % CI 0.78–0.93; in-hospital intubation: OR 0.85 and 95 % CI 0.74–0.97; and in-hospital blood gas analysis: OR 0.86 and 95 % CI 0.75–0.98). CONCLUSIONS: There was a significant temporal difference in 1-month survival after OHCA. The nighttime OHCA patients had significantly decreased resuscitation efforts by bystanders and in-hospital healthcare providers compared to those with evening and daytime OHCA. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13054-016-1323-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.