METHODS: This was a prospective, international, multicenter cohort study of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in the Asia-Pacific. Arrests caused by trauma, patients who were not transported by emergency medical services (EMS), and pediatric out-of-hospital cardiac arrest cases (<18 years) were excluded from the analysis. Modifiable out-of-hospital factors (bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation [CPR] and defibrillation, out-of-hospital defibrillation, advanced airway, and drug administration) were compared for all out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients presenting to EMS and participating hospitals. The primary outcome measure was survival to hospital discharge or 30 days of hospitalization (if not discharged). We used multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression models to identify factors independently associated with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival, accounting for clustering within each community.

RESULTS: Of 66,780 out-of-hospital cardiac arrest cases reported between January 2009 and December 2012, we included 56,765 in the analysis. In the adjusted model, modifiable factors associated with improved out-of-hospital cardiac arrest outcomes included bystander CPR (odds ratio [OR] 1.43; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.31 to 1.55), response time less than or equal to 8 minutes (OR 1.52; 95% CI 1.35 to 1.71), and out-of-hospital defibrillation (OR 2.31; 95% CI 1.96 to 2.72). Out-of-hospital advanced airway (OR 0.73; 95% CI 0.67 to 0.80) was negatively associated with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival.