Paramedic PapersHome Cardiac arrest Family-witnessed arrest outcomes vary by age
Cardiac arrest
Family-witnessed arrest outcomes vary by age
Prognostic impact of bystander-patient relationship and age in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest
Resuscitation · 2026-09 · Added 26 September 2026
An All-Japan Utstein registry analysis of 554,923 witnessed OHCA cases found arrests witnessed by family members had worse neurological outcomes than those witnessed by passersby, but the relationship reversed in elderly patients.
- Study type
- Registry
- Design
- Retrospective nationwide registry cohort
- Participants
- 554,923 adults with witnessed OHCA (2005–2023)
- Main finding
- Family-witnessed arrests had worse 1-month neurological outcomes than friend- or passerby-witnessed arrests, with the association poorer in the elderly but more favourable in younger patients
- Caveat
- Observational registry data; bystander relationship is a proxy for recognition and response delays that the analysis cannot fully untangle
- Bottom line
- Hypothesis-generating
Why it matters in Australia (High relevance). Bystander CPR and who witnesses arrests are universal features of OHCA care, and the finding matters for how dispatch and community responder programs are evaluated anywhere, including Australia.
Learning goal
Understand how delays in family recognition and response affect outcomes in witnessed cardiac arrest.
More
- Topic: Cardiac arrest
- Daily scan: 26 September 2026
Related papers on Cardiac arrest
-
Rescue breaths help in non-cardiac arrest
A nationwide Japanese registry cohort of 154,137 non-cardiac OHCA patients found bystander rescue-breathing CPR was associated with slightly lower 30-day mortality and unfavourable neurological outcome than compression-only CPR, with the clearest benefit in children and drowning arrests.
-
Women's OHCA survival edge fades by discharge
A prospective Chinese multicentre cohort of 33,650 EMS-treated OHCA patients found women had better prehospital ROSC and survival to admission than men but no advantage at discharge, with the early benefit lost in older and shockable-rhythm patients.
-
Pit-crew CPR training improves intact survival
Report of an EMS pit-crew CPR educational initiative associated with improved neurologically intact survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest — abstract not yet available (ahead-of-print), so the study design and effect size can't be verified yet.
-
No evidence on screening arrest survivors' psychology
Systematic review of structured identification and assessment of psychological, emotional or cognitive problems in cardiac arrest survivors — of 1,605 records screened, none met eligibility, so there is no evidence base for which screening instruments, thresholds, timing or referral pathways should be used.