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Improved Bystander CPR+AED Rates, More Survivors in 2019
More bystanders are coming forth to perform CPR and apply AED on out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients in Singapore, contributing to an increase in survivors from 175 in 2018 to 200 in 2019.
These encouraging data from the OHCA Data Report 2019 was presented by Prof Marcus Ong, Director of the Unit of Pre-hospital Emergency Care (UPEC) at Project Heart 2021 on 17 Oct 2021. The report showed a jump in the bystander AED application rate by 3.3 percentage points to 10.5% and a consistently high bystander CPR rate of 60%. The Utstein (witnessed, shockable) survival rate has also increased from 25.9% in 2018 to 26.2% in 2019. Prof Ong attributed this to a series of intervention measures in the community and emergency medical system over the last 15 years.
At the same time, OHCA cases in Singapore also increased by more than 8% to 3,233 in 2019. The incidence of OHCA among those above 65 years old has almost doubled over the decade to 36.2% (per 100,000 population) in 2019, resulting from increased prevalence of chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension and heart disease.
Watch the presentation by Prof Marcus Ong to find out more about the latest OHCA data:
