A new study finds that black people have a higher risk of experiencing cardiac arrest compared to white people.
The study, which appeared in the journal Circulation, was conducted by a team of researchers led by Dr. Sumeet S. Chugh, the associate director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in California.
The study involved 179 black people and 1,745 whites from Portland, Oregon, who had experienced sudden cardiac arrests between 2002 and 2012, as stated in the report from Medical News Today.
The data was taken from the Oregon Sudden Unexpected Death Study (SUDS), a study that has been ongoing for a decade and focuses on finding out why sudden cardiac arrests occur.
Findings revealed that 175 out of 100,000 black men compared to 84 out of 100,000 white men suffer from sudden cardiac arrest.
Meanwhile, 90 out of 100,000 black women compared to 40 out of 100,000 white women suffer from such.
At the time of ordeal, black people were younger than 65 years old, while whites were found to be older than 65.
Overall, it puts African-Americans at much younger age — six years younger in average — when they experienced sudden cardiac arrest.
Sudden cardiac arrest is different from a heart attack, although both terms are commonly used interchangeably. But they shouldn't because sudden cardiac arrest is what it is — sudden — and it doesn't give any warning as opposed to heart attack, according to the American Heart Association (AHA).
However, both terms are connected to each other. Sudden cardiac arrest can follow a heart attack. Conversely, heart attacks can increase a person's risk of having a sudden cardiac arrest.
Sudden cardiac arrest is a leading cause of death in the country, with more than 300,000 reported deaths per year.
It is a fatal occurence and there is a need to prevent it, Chugh said according to Medical Daily.
The AHA stated that the sudden cardiac arrest is reversible if immediate treatment is given to patients.
