Read: Unequal access to public defibrillators leads to worse cardiac arrest outcomes

You’re much less likely to survive a cardiac arrest if you live in a deprived area of England and Scotland, new research suggests.

Every year in the UK ambulances attend 30,000 people who have suffered a cardiac arrest outside of hospital. The survival rate is just one in 10. Alongside resuscitation and CPR, there is clear evidence that the use of a defibrillator can make a difference in improving the outcome. They can be used by untrained members of the public to give a high-energy shock to the heart to restore normal rhythm if it is needed. Every minute of delay after an arrest reduces the chance of survival by up to 10%. Given that three out of 10 cardiac arrests happen at weekends and four in 10 happen during the night, quick access at any time of the day is crucial.

Many defibrillators, however, are located in schools, community halls or supermarkets which aren’t accessible outside working hours. A study in Heart Journal by Hull York Medical School has found that this impacts people living in disadvantaged communities more because they live much further away from an accessible defibrillator than those in wealthier areas. In England and Wales, the distance to the nearest defibrillator is shorter for poorer communities, with no apparent difference between rich and poor areas in Scotland. But when the research looked at defibrillators that were accessible 24 hours a day, it found the difference in distance to the nearest device in poorer parts of England compared to the richest, was 99m. In Scotland, the gap was even wider, with the nearest device 317m further away for the people in a poorer neighbourhood. 

The research used locations of public access defibrillators collated by the British Heart Foundation in 2022. It found that on average, one is available 726m away from the centre of any given postcode along the British road network but in the poorest areas, that extended to a round trip of 1.8km. More affluent areas typically have greater access to funds, health literacy and advocacy to obtain a defibrillator for their community. 

There have been some very successful individual campaigns, often borne from tragic circumstances, that have resulted in more defibrillators. Experts have called for increased public engagement and education on prompt CPR and how to retrieve and use one. With those in deprived areas already more likely to have a higher incidence of poor health, this research highlights a further aspect of health inequality between socioeconomic groups in different parts of the country.