Racial Disparity in Outcomes of Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA): A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Out-of-hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) is the abrupt cessation of cardiac function outside of a hospital setting. With limited research into the pres-ence of racial disparities among outcomes of OHCA patients, this systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted. PubMed, Cochrane, and Scopus were searched from inception to March 2023. This analysis includes a total of 53,507 black patients, and 185,173 white patients, resulting in the pooling of 238,680 patients in this meta-analysis. It was observed that the black population was associated with significantly worsened survival to hospital discharge (OR: 0.81; 95% CI: 0.68, 0.96, P = 0.01), return of spontaneous circulation (OR: 0.79; 95% CI: 0.69, 0.89, P = 0.0002), and neurological outcomes (OR: 0.80; 95% CI: 0.68, 0.93; P = 0.003) when compared to their white counter-parts. However, there were no differences found with respect to mortality. To the best of our knowledge, this is the most comprehensive meta-analysis assessing racial disparities in OHCA outcomes that have never been explored before. Increased awareness programs, and greater racial inclusivity in the field of cardiovas-cular medicine is encouraged. Further studies are needed in order to arrive at a robust conclusion. (Curr Probl Cardiol 2023;48:101794.)