Paramedic PapersHome Cardiac arrest Nursing-home arrests more often shockable, linked to early AED
Cardiac arrest
Nursing-home arrests more often shockable, linked to early AED
Initial shockable rhythm detection among patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest by arrest location: A population-based cohort study in Japan
Resuscitation Plus · 2026-10 · Added 1 November 2026
A Japanese population-based registry of 2,478 medical-origin OHCA cases found an initial shockable rhythm in 36.3% of nursing-home arrests versus 7.1% at home (adjusted OR 12.35), with 97% of shockable nursing-home patients receiving an AED shock but only 0.8% surviving with good neurological outcome.
- Study type
- Registry
- Design
- Population-based registry cohort, descriptive plus multivariable logistic regression
- Participants
- 2,478 medical-origin OHCAs, Japan, 2016–2024
- Main finding
- Initial shockable rhythm: 36.3% in nursing homes vs 7.1% at home (aOR 12.35, 95% CI 8.93–17.24) and 33.4% in other locations; 97.0% of shockable nursing-home cases got an AED shock; one-month favourable neurological survival lowest in nursing homes at 0.8%
- Caveat
- Descriptive by design — the authors themselves attribute the rhythm gap to earlier AED access rather than proven causation, and survival was worst in nursing homes despite the shockable rhythms
- Bottom line
- Hypothesis-generating
Why it matters in Australia (High relevance). Bystander AED use and early rhythm detection are the same in Australia, and residential aged care is a common arrest location here; the finding speaks to where AED access changes what rhythms crews first see.
Learning goal
Weigh whether early AED access in residential aged care settings changes shockable rhythm detection and outcomes in cardiac arrest.
More
- Topic: Cardiac arrest
- Daily scan: 1 November 2026
- Podcast: Paramedic Papers Daily, 1 November 2026
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