Key result
Bystander CPR improves survival to hospital discharge by ~44% in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.
Why the study?
Sudden cardiac arrest in young adults is an uncommon but devastating event occurring in individuals without previously recognized heart disease. This article synthesizes contemporary evidence on temporal trends, risk factors, clinical characteristics, outcomes, prevention, and implications for physiotherapy and cardiovascular rehabilitation.
Sudden cardiac arrest in young adults stems from diverse inherited structural/electrical disorders and increasingly prevalent early-life cardiometabolic and behavioural risk factors, underscoring the critical need for rapid bystander resuscitation, targeted risk reduction, and structured cardiac rehabilitation.
Supports scaling community CPR programs; confirms survival benefit in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest from meta-analysis.
Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in young adults is an uncommon but devastating cardiovascular event that may occur in individuals without previously recognized heart disease.Its causes include inherited cardiomyopathies and channelopathies, coronary abnormalities, myocarditis, premature coronary disease, substance exposure, and modifiable behavioural risk factors.This article synthesizes contemporary evidence on temporal trends, risk factors, clinical characteristics, survival, neurological outcomes, prevention, and implications for physiotherapy and cardiovascular rehabilitation.Recent systematic reviews, meta-analyses, registry studies, and cardiovascular guidelines published predominantly between 2017 and 2026 were considered, with evidence organized according to aetiology, cardiometabolic and behavioural risk factors, exercise-associated events, resuscitation outcomes, and rehabilitation.National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) "heart-attack" mortality data from India for 2020-2024 were incorporated as contextual mortality information and were not interpreted as direct estimates of SCA incidence.Available evidence demonstrates substantial heterogeneity in the causes and outcomes of SCA among young adults, with cardiomyopathies, channelopathies, coronary abnormalities, myocarditis, premature coronary disease, and substance-related toxicity representing important contributors.Smoking, obesity, physical inactivity, poor sleep, psychological stress, and unhealthy dietary patterns may further increase cardiovascular vulnerability.Early bystander CPR, rapid defibrillation, organized emergency response, risk reduction, safe physical activity, and multidisciplinary rehabilitation are essential, with physiotherapists playing an important role in exercise prescription, cardiovascular risk reduction, fitness promotion, and cardiac rehabilitation.
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Manmeet Kaur Bhalla (2026) conducted a review in Sudden cardiac arrest in young adults. Cardiovascular risk factors, inherited/structural disorders, and emergency resuscitation (bystander CPR/AED) vs. No bystander CPR or absence of risk factors was evaluated on Survival to hospital discharge following out-of-hospital cardiac arrest with bystander CPR (OR 1.44, 95% CI 1.33-1.56). Bystander CPR improved survival to hospital discharge (OR 1.44, 95% CI 1.33-1.56) in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, while Indian recorded heart-attack deaths rose 35% from 2020 to 2024.
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