Temporal trends of suicide-related non-traumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest characteristics and outcomes with the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Jurisdictions have reported COVID-19-related increases in the incidence and mortality of non-traumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). We hypothesized that changes in suicide incidence during the COVID-19 pandemic may have contributed to these changes. We investigated whether the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with changes in the: (1) incidence of suicide-related OHCA, and (2) characteristics and outcomes of such cases.

Methods

We used the provincial British Columbia Cardiac Arrest Registry, including non-traumatic emergency medical system (EMS)-assessed OHCA, to compare suicide-related OHCA (defined as clear self-harm or a priori communication of intent) one-year prior to, and one year after, the start of the COVID-19 pandemic (March 15, 2020). We

SUBMITTER: Yap J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8890978 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature