Journal of community health
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Improving survival rates for out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) at the neighborhood level is increasingly seen as priority in US cities. Since wide disparities exist in OHCA rates at the neighborhood level, it is necessary to locate neighborhoods where people are at elevated risk for cardiac arrest and target these for educational outreach and other mitigation strategies. This paper describes a GIS-based methodology that was used to identify communities with high risk for cardiac arrests in Franklin County, Ohio during the period 2004-2009. ⋯ Other risk factors for OHCA were also high in the selected communities. The methodology employed in this study provides for a measurement conceptualization of OHCA clusters that is much broader than what has been previously offered. It is also statistically reliable and can be easily executed using a GIS.