Abstract
Knowledge about psychological distress in older cardiac arrest (CA) survivors is sparse, and the lack of comparisons with general populations make it difficult to draw any strong conclusions about prevalence and potential changes caused by CA. Our aim was to compare psychological distress between older CA survivors and a general population. This study included survivors 65–80 years old and an age- and sex-matched general population. Data on survivors was collected from the Swedish Register of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale was used to measure psychological distress. Data were analyzed with non-parametric statistics. The final sample included 1027 CA survivors and 1018 persons from the general population. In both groups, the mean age was 72 years (SD = 4) and 28% were women. The prevalence of anxiety was 9.9% for survivors and 9.5% for the general population, while the corresponding prevalence for depression was 11.3% and 11.5% respectively. Using the cut-off scores, no significant differences between the groups were detected. However, CA survivors reported significantly lower symptom levels using the subscale scores (ΔMdn = 1, p < 0.001). In conclusion, the CA survivors did not report higher symptom levels of anxiety and depression than the general population. However, since psychological distress is related to poor quality-of-life and recovery, screening for psychological distress remains important.
Highlights
Cardiac arrest (CA) is a common health problem worldwide, especially in older people
This comparative study was based on data from the Swedish Register of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (SRCR) collected between 2014 and 2017 and an age- and sexmatched sample from a cross-sectional survey including a random sample of individuals from the total Swedish population in the age group 65–80 years [13]
The gender distribution was equal in both groups, with 736 (71.7%) men and 291 (28.3%) women in the CA survivors and 730 (71.7%) men and 288 (28.3%) women in the general population
Summary
Cardiac arrest (CA) is a common health problem worldwide, especially in older people. In Europe, approximately 350,000 suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). Annually [1,2], while the incidence of in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) is estimated as. 1–5 per 1000 hospital admissions [3,4]. The prognosis is poor, but the survival rates have improved during recent decades [5]. Identification and treatment of psychological distress is of great importance, since such problems have an impact on health state, quality of life, and mortality [6,7]. According to the American Psychological Association, psychological distress is a state of emotional suffering characterized by symptoms of anxiety and depression, ranging from normal fluctuations to psychopathology. Psychological distress is often assessed by putative self-reported measures [8]
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