American journal of epidemiology
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Emergency medical services with advanced life support systems were implemented in the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, area in the mid-1970s. To assess the impact of emergency medical services on coronary heart disease mortality, the authors reviewed ambulance records and hospital emergency room logs for possible out-of-hospital cardiac arrest cases in the period 1972-1982. ⋯ Coronary heart disease mortality rates declined in that period by 34.9% for men (from 527.5 per 100,000 to 343.3 per 100,000) and by 41.7% for women (from 168.6 per 100,000 to 98.3 per 100,000). The authors estimate that improved survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest contributed 5.4% (9.9 of 184.2) of the mortality decline for men and 4.3% (3.0 of 70.3) of the decline for women. This was a significant contribution to the decline in coronary heart disease mortality, but it explains only a small part of it.