Impact of population aging on the presentation of out‐of‐hospital cardiac arrest in the Pan Asian Resuscitation Outcomes Study

AIM: As a population ages, it can impact on the characteristics and outcomes of cardiogenic out‐of‐hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between the age incidence of cardiogenic OHCA and population aging. METHODS: This was a post‐hoc analysis of the Pan Asian Resuscitation Outcomes Study (PAROS) database. Data on the population old‐age dependency ratio (i.e. elderly/non‐elderly) were extracted from publicly accessible sources (United Nations and World Health Organization). RESULTS: We analyzed 40,872 OHCA cases from seven PAROS countries over the period 2009 to 2013. We found significant correlation between the population old‐age dependency ratio and elderly/non‐elderly ratio in OHCA patients (r = 0.92, P = 0.003). There was a significant correlation between the population old‐age dependency ratio and risk differences of 30‐day survival rates for non‐elderly and elderly OHCA patients (r = 0.89, P = 0.007). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that the proportion of elderly among OHCA patients will increase, and outcomes could increasingly differ between elderly and non‐elderly as a society ages progressively. This has implications for planning and delivery of emergency services as a society ages.