Does out-of-hospital cardiac arrest worsen patient-reported health status compared to myocardial infarction in survivors?
Survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest have similar physical and emotional health status to MI controls, though they report poorer memory function and slightly lower employment rates.
We interviewed 308 survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and matched controls who had suffered a myocardial infarction. The Sickness Impact Profile (SIP) scores of controls were somewhat lower (better) than those of cases, but responses of cases and controls to additional questions about stair climbing, irritability and mood were virtually identical. Half as many (18 per cent) controls as cases (38 per cent) reported poorer memory function; nevertheless, 63 per cent of cases and 79 per cent of controls who had been working outside the home at the time of the event were employed at the time of the interview.
Bergner et al. (Fri,) studied this question.