Women More Likely to Experience Anxiety, Depression After Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest

THURSDAY, July 18, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) survivors could experience changes in employment and income, and women may have an increase in dispensing of anxiety/depression medications, according to a study published online July 8 in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

Robin L.A. Smits, from the University of Amsterdam, and colleagues analyzed five-year changes in socioeconomic and mental health outcomes after OHCA in 259 women and 996 men from the Netherlands who survived 30 days after OHCA occurred between 2009 and 2015. Changes in employment, income, primary earner status, and anxiety/depression from the year before the OHCA to five years after were assessed.

The researchers found decreases from before OHCA to five years thereafter for both women and men in the proportion employed (72.8 to 53.4 percent for women and 80.9 to 63.7 percent for men) and for the median income. Neither sex had a change in primary earner status. In women only, there was an increase in dispensing of anxiety/depression medication, especially after one year and five years (odds ratios, 5.68 and 5.73, respectively). Differences were seen between men and women for changes in primary earner status and in anxiety/depression medication, which increased at one year for women and did not change significantly for men. Similar changes were seen in the general population, apart from anxiety/depression medication in women.

“This emphasizes the importance of addressing the mental health of OHCA survivors, specifically women, multiple years after the event,” the authors write.

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