Survival Rates of Heart Attack Improving

A recent report has revealed that while the chances of surviving a heart attack has improved the odds of surviving a stroke remain relatively unchanged.

The Canadian Institute for Health Information in its annual report found that the short-term in-hospital death rate for people suffering a new heart attack fell to 11.1 per cent in 2004-2005, from 13.4 per cent in 1999-2000 whereas in the case of strokes, 18.8 per cent of stroke patients admitted to the hospital after suffering a new stroke were more likely to died within 30 days in 2004-2005 being relatively unchanged from the earlier period.

However the number of people being admitted to hospital for both heart attacks and strokes has declined with a fall of 19 per cent between 1999-2000 and 2004-2005for heart attacks while hospitalizations for strokes fell by about 23 per cent.

‘It is encouraging to see that the odds of surviving a heart attack are improving,’ CIHI president Glenda Yeates said in Wednesday's report.

‘But looking across the country, death rates vary considerably from region to region, which suggests that there is an opportunity for further improvement.’

Regional death rates ranged from 7.6 per cent to 16.3 per cent.

Some other factors that were noted from the study were that women appeared to have a 16 percent greater likelihood of dying within 30 days of being admitted to hospital for a new heart attack. For a stroke, the risk was 11 per cent greater.

In addition it was found that the type of care received by a patient also played an important role in survival rates for both strokes and heart attacks. The CIHI analysis found that a cardiac specialist cared for 36 per cent of heart attack patients and they appeared to have a lesser likelihood of dying in the hospital within 30 days.

Similarly, the 26 per cent of stroke patients who received care from a neurologist or neurosurgeon also tended to have better survival rates.