Underuse of Bystander Defibrillation on Females During Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: A Retrospective Observational Study in Aotearoa New Zealand
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Todd, Verity
Hutchinson, Heather
Withanarachchie, Vinuli
Swain, Andy
Maessen, Sarah
Brett, Aroha
Dicker, Bridget
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Elsevier BV
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Introduction Early bystander CPR and defibrillation improve cardiac arrest survival. International studies show women receive fewer bystander interventions after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) than men. We investigated associations between sex and bystander interventions in OHCA in Aotearoa New Zealand. Methods Retrospective cohort study of adult OHCA with attempted resuscitation (January 2019–December 2023). Variables included demographics, ethnicity, socioeconomic deprivation, rurality, location type, and witness status. Logistic regression assessed associations between sex and bystander CPR and bystander defibrillation (shock delivered), adjusting for covariates. Results Of 9377 OHCA events, 29.6% occurred in females. Bystander CPR rates were similar between females (75.7%) and males (77.3%) (AOR 1.06, 95% CI: 0.94–1.18, p = 0.36). However, bystander defibrillation occurred in only 1.9% of females versus 5.4% of males. Females had 65% lower odds of receiving bystander defibrillation in unadjusted analysis (UOR 0.35, 95% CI: 0.26–0.47, p ' 0.001) and 39% lower odds after adjustment (AOR 0.61, 95% CI: 0.44–0.84, p = 0.002). Among shockable rhythm cases, sex disparity was not significant (AOR 0.83, 95% CI: 0.59–1.15, p = 0.26). Conclusion Despite equitable bystander CPR rates, females had significantly lower odds of receiving bystander defibrillation. In shockable rhythm cases, the disparity was not significant after adjustment for covariates, suggesting that patient and event characteristics mediate rather than confound this relationship. Findings highlight the need for targeted interventions addressing strategies to improve bystander defibrillation for females in cardiac arrest.
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AED, Bystander CPR, Bystander defibrillation, Equity, Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, Prehospital, Women, 32 Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, 3202 Clinical Sciences, Cardiovascular, Heart Disease, Clinical Research, Women's Health, Cardiovascular, 3201 Cardiovascular medicine and haematology
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Resuscitation Plus, ISSN: 2666-5204 (Print); 2666-5204 (Online), Elsevier BV, 28, 101252-. doi: 10.1016/j.resplu.2026.101252
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© 2026 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. You are not required to obtain permission to reuse this article.
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as © 2026 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. You are not required to obtain permission to reuse this article.