TUESDAY, July 11, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Activation of a volunteer response system is associated with improved outcomes in cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), according to a study published in the July 18 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Martin Jonsson, Ph.D., from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, and colleagues conducted a retrospective observational analysis to examine whether activation of a volunteer responder system to OHCA is associated with higher rates of bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), bystander defibrillation, and 30-day survival. Cases of OHCA between 2015 and 2019 from five European sites with volunteer responder systems were included. In response to OHCA, systems were activated by dispatchers at emergency medical communication centers at all sites. Exposed cases, with system activation, were compared with nonexposed cases, without system activation (4,696 and 4,857 cases, respectively).

The researchers found that the pooled risk ratios were 1.30, 1.89, and 1.22 for bystander CPR, bystander defibrillation, and 30-day survival, respectively, in association with activation of the volunteer responder system.

“Activation of a volunteer response system in cases of OHCA was associated with higher chances of bystander CPR, bystander defibrillation, and 30-day survival, compared with no system activation,” the authors write. “A randomized controlled trial is necessary to determine fully the causal effect of volunteer responder systems.”

Several authors are indirect shareholders in the company that runs the volunteer responder system in Sweden and Denmark.

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