Difficulty identifying universal high-efficacy locations for public access defibrillators

This paper reports on an investigation of spatial patterns of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) incidence in a large American city. The purpose of this paper is to identify neighborhoods and public occupancies with highest risk in order to develop an evidence-based strategy to promote cardiac health and improve survival.

Two-tailed bivariate analysis was conducted using a Spearman correlation coefficient to check the covariance of census variables that were expected to relate to OHCA incidence. A principal component analysis was conducted on the remaining variables that statistically correlated with OHCA. Local indicators of spatial analysis was conducted to test the OHCA risk index and assess how well it predicts the observed OHCA incidence.

Clusters of OHCA events were found in neighborhoods with socially isolated older persons, as well as low-income minority populations. However, while past research has documented high-risk OHCA locations, these were not the case in this community.

The results highlight the importance of using local data to develop public health policies. Understanding neighborhood-level risks invariably guides resource allocation, service provision, and policy decisions to improve community public health and safety outcomes.