Do Women Have a Higher Mortality Risk Than Men following ICU Admission after Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest? A Retrospective Cohort Analysis

Purpose: previous studies showed that women have a higher mortality risk than men after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). This sex difference may disappear after adjustment for cardiac arrest characteristics. Most studies also included patients who were not admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). We analyzed whether sex impacts the mortality of ICU-admitted OHCA patients. Methods: a retrospective cohort analysis of 1240 OHCA patients admitted to the ICU (310 women, 25%, Age(Median) 64.0 (IQR 53.8–73.0)) at an academic hospital in the Netherlands between 1 January 2007 and 31 December 2018. The primary outcome was 90-day mortality; the secondary outcome was a favorable cerebral performance category (CPC) score at ICU discharge and ICU length of stay (ICU LOS). Results: we found no association between sex and 90-day mortality (hazard ratio (HR) 0.867; 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.678–1.108) after adjusting for relevant cardiac arrest characteristics. Similarly, we found no difference for favorable CPC score (OR 1.117; 95% CI 0.777–1.608) or ICU LOS between sexes (Beta 0.428; 95% CI −0.442 to 1.298). Conclusions: after adjusting for cardiac arrest characteristics, we found no difference between women and men with respect to 90-day mortality, ICU LOS, and CPC score.