Public access defibrillators: Gender-based inequities in access and application.

Area of Science:

• Emergency Medicine
• Public Health
• Cardiology

Background:

• Public access automated external defibrillator (AED) programs aim to improve survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA).
• Existing research has not clarified if men and women experience equitable benefits from these public access AED programs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate gender-based disparities in OHCA locations.
• To determine the proportion of OHCA cases potentially eligible for public access AED application.
• To assess if patient gender is associated with AED utilization in OHCA events.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of data from the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium registry (2011-2015).
• Comparison of OHCA locations between genders.
• Multivariate logistic regression models to assess the association between gender and public access AED application in public OHCA cases with bystander intervention.

Main Results:

• Out of 61,473 OHCA cases, 34% were female; 50% received bystander resuscitation.
• Public OHCA incidence was significantly lower in women (8.8%) compared to men (18%).
• Women had lower odds of public access AED application (adjusted OR 0.76) and in bystander-intervened public OHCA (adjusted OR 0.83).

Conclusions:

• Women experience fewer OHCA in public settings, potentially limiting access to public AEDs.
• Even in public OHCA with bystander intervention, women were less likely to receive AED application.
• Gender-specific resuscitation training and optimized AED placement are recommended to improve OHCA outcomes for women.