Regional variation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest incidence and outcome.

Context: The health and policy implications of regional variation in incidence and outcome of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest remain to be determined.

Objective: To evaluate whether cardiac arrest incidence and outcome differ across geographic regions.

Design, Setting, And Patients: Prospective observational study (the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium) of all out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in 10 North American sites (8 US and 2 Canadian) from May 1, 2006, to April 30, 2007, followed up to hospital discharge, and including data available as of June 28, 2008.