Background: The relationship between gender and mortality from cardiac arrest is poorly understood. In this study we compare survivability of cardiac arrest in the United States based on gender.

Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study on patients with cardiac arrest surveying Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) Hospital Inpatient National Statistics from 2000 to 2014. A total of 262,111 patients with diagnosis of cardiac arrest and ventricular fibrillation (diagnosis defined by ICD-9 sorted by Clinical Classification Software) were surveyed. In-hospital deaths secondary to cardiac arrests were compared between genders. Z-test was used to calculate two-tail p-value to determine statistical difference.

Results: During the study period we reported a total of 262,111 cardiac arrests in years 2000 to 2014. In males, 157,117 of cardiac arrest resulted in 74,050 deaths. In comparison, 104,994 cardiac arrests in females resulted in 61,806 mortalities. Based on these values the combined percentage of mortality from cardiac arrest in years 2000 to 2014 amounted to 47.1% in males as compared to 58.9% in females (p<0.001). Each year within the 2000-2014 demonstrated a higher percentage of mortality by cardiac arrest in females compared to males (p<0.001).

Conclusions: Although the total incidence and mortality by cardiac arrest were shown to be higher in males, the percentages of deaths from cardiac arrest were higher in the female population nationwide from 2000 to 2014. Further studies are warranted to discover the underlying factors that result in the gender difference in survivability from cardiac arrest in order to optimize medical efforts to benefit both populations.

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