Scottish Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest data linkage project: 2015/16 – 2016/17 results

Background

The collection and preparation of data contained in this report follow the same methodology of our previous report: Initial Results of the Scottish Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Data Linkage Project ^[ii] .

In brief, the Scottish Ambulance Service provided data on all OHCA incidents where resuscitation was attempted during the reporting period. Where possible the patients involved in each incident were linked to survival outcome data via their Community Health Index ( CHI) number by the Information Services Division, NHS National Services Scotland. In addition, measures such as the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation ( SIMD) were applied to the dataset to allow further analysis.

This report presents initial results of 2015/16 and 2016/17 analysis from the Scottish OHCA data linkage project. This innovative work has linked complex datasets in order to report on OHCA in Scotland. As such, the results should be treated as provisional whilst the data and methodology are still in development. It should be noted that data from 2013/14 has been excluded from the analysis due to incomplete data. The 2013/14 data will be updated in due course and included in future publications. It should also be noted the reporting periods for the analysis in this report:

• Trends over time analysis has been presented by 1 ^st April – 31 ^st March.
• Pre strategy and post strategy introduction comparisons:
  • 2011 – 2014/15 combined dataset for baseline ( i.e. pre strategy introduction) analysis
  • 2015/16 – 2016/17 combined dataset for post strategy introduction analysis