LOS ANGELES, CA--Sumeet Chugh and colleages from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center have analyzed multiple data sources to determine the relative health burden of premature death from sudden cardiac arrest compared with other diseases in the United States. They reviewed:
- Leading causes of death among men and women from 2009 US death certificate reporting;
- Individual cancer mortality rates from 2008 death certificate reporting from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Program of Cancer Registries;
- County, state, and national population data for 2009 from the US Census Bureau; and
- Sudden cardiac death (SCD) rates from the Oregon Sudden Unexpected Death Study (SUDS) population-based surveillance study of SCD between 2002 and 2004.
The age-adjusted national incidence of sudden cardiac death was 60 per 100 000 population. The burden of premature death for men and women was greater for SCD than for all individual cancers and most other leading causes of death.
They conclude that the societal burden of SCD is high relative to other major causes of death. Accordingly, improved national surveillance with the goal of optimizing and monitoring SCD prevention and treatment should be a high priority.The societal burden of SCD as measured by years of potential life lost (YPLL) is highly relative to other major non-cardiac conditions.
Creation of a nationwide surveillance system for cardiovascular disease has been recognized as a priority. As the present study illustrates, the high societal burden of SCD alone could justify such a project. In areas where research collaborations between cardiology and emergency medicine systems are feasible, a network of nationally representative community-based studies of SCD could be developed to measure rates and modes of cardiovascular death and track them over time. Such an effort would facilitate a better understanding of SCD causes and a more accurate and timely assessment of the effectiveness of SCD prevention and treatment efforts.
SOURCE: Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology