NARMER'S PLACE: Race Matters: Folks In Predominantly Black Neighborhoods Are 50% Less Likely To Receive CPR Than People In White Neighborhoods

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Race Matters: Folks In Predominantly Black Neighborhoods Are 50% Less Likely To Receive CPR Than People In White Neighborhoods

SMH. Apparently your neighborhood is a factor in regards to your chances of receiving CPR…
According to LA TImes:

If your heart stops and you fall to the ground, your chances of survival may depend on which neighborhood you’re in when you collapse. Patients suffering cardiac arrest in poorer, predominantly black neighborhoods were half as likely to receive CPR from a bystander as those in richer, predominantly white neighborhoods, according to research published in Thursday’s edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Even cardiac arrest victims in well-to-do black neighborhoods were 23% less likely to receive bystander assistance. And overall, blacks and Latinos were less likely to receive aid, regardless of where they were. “We’ve started to look into how neighborhoods affect people’s health for obesity and food deserts and cancer, but this is the first time we’ve really thought about it for cardiac arrest,” said Dr. Comilla Sasson, an emergency medicine physician at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, who led the study.
Sudden cardiac arrest outside a hospital setting is the leading cause of death in the United States, killing some 300,000 people annually. Sudden cardiac arrest is caused by an electrical glitch that prompts an abnormal heart rhythm and is different from a heart attack, which happens when blood flow is blocked and a region of the heart is starved of oxygen. About 92% of people who suffer sudden cardiac arrest die.
This is where CPR comes in. Those first few minutes after a person’s heart malfunctions, but before an ambulance arrives and emergency medical responders take over, can mean all the difference for survival. But survival rates vary widely from city to city. In places like Seattle, the rate is 16%. In Detroit, it’s 0.2%.
It’s unclear exactly why these differences exist. Seattle is thought to have a widespread culture of CPR training, Sasson said, and it’s somewhat whiter and more well-to-do than long-suffering Detroit. Studies in Canada and Seattle have indicated that economics are key, with victims faring better in richer areas than in poorer ones. But studies conducted in Chicago in the 1980s found that race was a major factor.
The researchers behind the new analysis suspected that both issues were in play. They culled data from 29 cities and counties covering some 22 million people, using data from the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival, which is maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Discuss…