Abstract 295: Availability Of Automatic Defibrillators And Volunteer Responders For Out-of-hospital Cardiac Arrest In Denmark

Introduction: Public automatic defibrillators (AEDs) and bystander resuscitation (CPR) are critical for cardiac arrest survival. We examined how availability of AEDs and volunteer responders that can be summoned with an app have developed following many national initiatives to improve survival. Methods: All OHCA (Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest) registered with coordinates within the Danish Cardiac Arrest Registry (2016-2020) were included. This study assessed coverage of 1) AEDs and 2) volunteer responders at 12 noon for home and public OHCAs. Coverage was defined as ≥ 1 AED and ≥ 4 volunteer responders within 200, 500, or 1,800 meters using straight line distance from the OHCA. Results: A total of 22,330 OHCAs were included. At 12 noon, 33,180 volunteer responders (572/100,000 inhabitants) and 22,418 AEDs (387/100,000 inhabitants) were available. More OHCA were covered with AEDs compared to volunteer responders for all distances. A significant difference was found in AED coverage in public compared to home arrests for all distances (p for difference at all distances <0.05). Opposite, no difference was found in volunteer responder coverage for home compared to public arrests at 1,800 and 500 meters (p for difference >0.05). Figure 1 illustrates AED and volunteer responder coverage for home and public arrest. Conclusion: Following the implementation of a national volunteer responder program and strategic placement of AEDs in Denmark, most historical OHCAs were covered by AEDs and volunteer responders within 1,800 meters. Although we have more volunteer responders per 100,000 inhabitants compared to AEDs, we found more than half (53%) of all OHCA were covered with AEDs within 200 meters whereas only 16% of all OHCAs were covered by volunteer responders within 200 meters. These findings indicate strategic AED placement in Denmark, but further efforts regarding volunteer responder recruitment are needed to increase coverage of the historical OHCA in Denmark.