WEDNESDAY, April 16 (HealthDay News) -- Your chances for
surviving a cardiac arrest are 13.4 percent worse if you are
admitted to the hospital on the weekend versus a weekday, according
to new research.
Even after taking into account factors such as hospital size and
location and the person's age, gender and other illnesses, the
lower survival rate remains the same.
"A higher death rate among patients admitted on weekends may be
due to lack of resources for treating cardiac arrest," study author
Richard M. Dubinsky, of the University of Kansas Medical Center in
Kansas City, said in a prepared statement.
The findings come from researchers analyzing a national database
containing a 20 percent sampling of all U.S. hospital admissions
for cardiac arrest from 1990 to 2004. The analysis included 67,554
admissions. During cardiac arrest, the heart slows or stops
working, and brain death can occur in just four to six minutes.
Dubinsky's study, expected to be presented Wednesday at the
American Academy of Neurology annual meeting, in Chicago, also
found that men were less likely to die after being admitted to the
hospital for cardiac arrest than women, and cardiac arrest patients
are getting younger.
"The average age of a patient admitted to the hospital for
cardiac arrest in the early 1990s was 68. The average age dropped
to 66.5 years old 10 years later," Dubinsky said.
More information
The American Heart Association outlines has more about
common cardiovascular diseases.
