Background: In-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) poses a considerable threat to hospitalized patients, leading to high mortality rates and severe neurological deficits among survivors. Despite the advancements in resuscitation practices, the prognosis of IHCA remains poor, and comprehensive studies exploring nationwide trends and long-term survival are scarce, particularly in the Asian populations.
Methods: Utilizing data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database, we conducted a nationwide cohort study to analyze the IHCA events among adult patients between 2003 and 2020. The outcomes of interest in this study included the temporal trend in the IHCA incidence, in-hospital mortality, and median survival after discharge for overall hospitalizations.
Results: Over the 18-year period, the IHCA incidence in Taiwan declined by 70%, from an annual incidence of 7.1 per 1,000 admissions to a lower rate in 2020, accompanied by a 14% reduction in the in-hospital mortality rate, with an average of 86.5%. The overall long-term survival rate for discharged survivors was 63.9%. We observed a substantial 125% increase in the median survival duration of discharged survivors, rising from 1.56 years in 2003 to 3.51 years in 2015. Favorable in-hospital survival rates and extended life expectancy were notably seen in the patients with shockable rhythms, those with a cardiac primary diagnosis, women, and younger patients.
Conclusions: Our study data revealed significant declines in the IHCA incidence and in-hospital mortality in Taiwan, along with improved long-term survival among survivors, particularly among specific subgroups. Women exhibited significantly better long-term survival as compared to men, underscoring the need to avoid sex-based treatment biases. Improvements in discharge survival rates and life expectancy were less pronounced in older survivors, indicating that age alone may not be sufficient to guide IHCA management decisions. Proactive resuscitation should be carefully considered for older patients, particularly those with mild frailty and potentially reversible conditions. Trial registration the institutional review board of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital approved all data usage and the study protocol (Registration number: 202301625B0, Registered 7 November 2023).
Keywords: Epidemiological trends; In-hospital cardiac arrest; In-hospital mortality; Survival analysis.
© 2025. The Author(s).