Sudden Cardiac Arrest a major health crisis – 18.8% of out of hospital cardiac arrests occur in a public setting, with over 37% of cases witnessed by a layperson

Sudden cardiac arrest continues to be a major public health crisis worldwide.

There are more than 356,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) annually in the U.S., nearly 90% of them fatal.  The location of OHCA in adults is most often a home or residence (69.8%), a public setting (18.8%) and an OHCA was witnessed by a layperson in 37.7% of cases. Sports-related Sudden Cardiac Arrests (SCA) accounted for 39% of SCAs among those <18 years of age, 13% for those 19-25 years of age, and 7% for those 25-34 years of age. The estimated societal burden of SCD in the U.S. was 2 million years of potential life lost for males and 1.3 million potential life lost for females, accounting for 40-50% of the years of potential life lost from all cardiac diseases. Among males, estimated deaths attributed to SCD exceeded all other individual causes of death, including lung cancer, accidents, chronic lower respiratory disease, cerebrovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, prostate cancer, and colorectal cancer.

https://www.sca-aware.org/about-sudden-cardiac-arrest/latest-statistics