Incidence of out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest at exercise and sport facilities in Queensland, Australia

Aim: Exercise and sport facilities (ESF) contribute to the preventive health policy of the governments by helping people to be more physically active. Hence, vigorous exercise can be a trigger for sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in people with known or hidden cardiovascular conditions. The aim of this study was to analyse the incidence rate (IR) of out-of-hospital SCA (OHSCA) at ESF in Queensland, Australia. Methods: The de-identified electronic OHSCA data was obtained from the Queensland Ambulance Services (QAS) for the eight year period between 2007 and 2015. The data was systematically extracted, coded and categorised before statistical analysis. The OHSCA incidence rating (IR) for each type of ESF was standardised per 10,000 participants according to user data in Queensland obtained from the Australian Bureau Statistics (2012). Results: There were 250 OHSCA cases in ESF after exclusions (e.g. vehicle trauma, home, <18 years old) and key word search by type of sport. Potential cases were manually reviewed by street address for relevance. Most of the SCA patients were male (n = 187, 86.6%) and aged ≥65 (n=91, 42.1%). The top five risk sites for OHSCA were motorsports clubs (IR=8.5), lawn-bowls clubs (IR=7.1), squash centres (IR=4), golf clubs (IR=2.9), and tennis clubs (IR=1.9). Conclusions: The ESF operators have a duty to ensure the health/safety of their participants by implementing medical emergency plan (MEP) and procedures that include timely recognition, calling emergency medical services, early cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and early defibrillation when a cardiovascular event occurs. This study has policy implications for the ESF and sport governing organisations to revise their MEP and identify their need to utilise automated external defibrillators (AED) that can help to improve SCA outcomes. References: Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2012). Participation in Sport and Physical Recreation, 2011-12. Table Builder, Secure Web Log-in. Findings based on use of ABS Microdata.