HHS HealthBeat (November 18, 2008)

Where you live – or die

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Where you live can affect whether you live. Researchers who looked at cases of cardiac arrest – when the heart stops beating – found people in some parts of the country were more likely to survive than were people in others.

The researchers checked data on about 20,000 cases that happened outside hospital settings. Differences from area to area were striking – not only in whether people lived, but whether they even had cardiac arrest.

Graham Nichol of the University of Washington:

``Someone in one community is 200 percent more likely to have cardiac arrest and 500 percent more likely to die when they have cardiac arrest.’’ (10 seconds)

One key difference is being around people who know and can do CPR.

The study in the Journal of the American Medical Association was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: November, 18 2008