Abstract 11106: The Incidence of Sudden Cardiac Arrest Continues to Rise, but Outcome is at a Standstill in South Korea: Analyzed From National Health Insurance Database Cohort From 2003 to 2013

Abstract

Introduction: Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is a major clinical and public health problem. South Korea is aging faster than any other country, and the disease spectrum has changed profoundly in the last few decades. The purpose of this study was to investigate the change of the incidence and outcome of SCA over the past ten years. Methods: With the use of the National Health Insurance Database Cohort (NHID-Cohort) consisting of one million patients from 2003 through 2013, we identified the patient with sudden cardiac arrest using Korean Standard Classification of Diseases, 6th Revision, code I46. Results: In all, 5,307 (0.52%) patients with SCA were identified between 2003 and 2013. SCA occurred more frequent in men (59.3%) than women (40.7%) (p<0.001). The annual incidence of SCA increased by 116.3% from 28.9 in 2003 to 62.5 in 2013 (per 100,000 person-year, p<0.001). The increase of SCA was particularly predominant in patients with ≥60 years of age (from 153.8 to 259.1 per 100,000 person-year, p<0.001) and those with low economic status (from 27.5 to 85.2 per 100,000 person-year, p<0.001). Health care cost per 100,000 person-year also increased from $65,866 in 2003 to $241,534 in 2013 (p<0.001). However, there was no significant improvement in one-month survival rate during the same period (11.9% in 2003, 13.4% in 2013, p=0.526). Conclusions: The incidence of SCA in South Korea continues to rise over the past ten years, especially in elderly people. Despite the tremendous advances in the field of cardiovascular medicine, outcome of SCA is at a standstill.