Preventable Cardiac Deaths during Marathons are Down, Study Finds

Preventable Cardiac Deaths during Marathons are Down, Study Finds


Credit: Run 4 FFWPU from Pexels

While more people than ever are running marathons in the us, the risk of dying from a heart attack during a run has fallen dramatically in recent years. That’s a key conclusion from a new study by Jonathan Kim, Associate Professor in the Emory School of Medicine. Kim’s research is a follow-up to a study he published in 2012-The first investment into UNEXPECTED CARDICECHAIC Arrests during Long-DISTANCE Running Events.

The new findings, Published in JamaIndicate that while the rate of Marathon Runners who Suffer Cardiac arrest remain unchanged, their chance of survival is twice what it was in the past. Now, far fewer marathon runners who suffer cardiac arrest are dying of it.

“We Continue to see media reports about unfortunate cases of Cardiac Arrest during long-doctor running Events,” Kim Says.

“But, have the incident of these events changes? Have got changes in the most common causes of cardiac arrest? What are the factors associated with death and survival? Our first analysis, and an important one second recreational running continues to increase in popularity. “

The Challenge of Finding Data

More than 29 Million People Completed Marathons in the US Between 2010 and 2023, triple the number of the previous decade, which kim examined in his first study. There’s no Central Registry of Race-Related Cardiac Events, so for Both Studies, His TEAM HAD to Find Their Data Through a range of sources, starting by contracting individual race dietors.

“We Leveraged a Few Sources, Including a Comprehensive Review of Media Reports,” Kim Says. “We also have had contact information for all race directors and wade approximately 70% of that thats who are helped and told us the number of events during this specification IFCIFIC TIMELINE, Inxi Sex of the participant. “

The Researchers Used Exented Public Internet Searches to Identtify and Reach out to Runners who survived Cardiac Arrests, or Next-OF-Kin, To Construct Detacious Profiles of SAS MANY CASS Possible. “The Vast Majority of Cases Were Identified by Public Search Engines. And all of the deaths was as well,” Kim says.

Analyzing this extensive database, kim found that when of cardiac arrests was about the same during the two periods – 0.60 per 100,000 PARTICIPANTS NOW VERSUSUSUSUSUSUSUSUSUN Period -the rate of deaths from these cases, however, fell by half: from 0.39 per 100,000 to 0.19 per 100,000. That’s about a 50% decline in the death rate since 2000–2009.

As Before, Cardiac Arrests Remain far more common mon than among women and more common in Marathons than half marathons.

The Sport’s Growing Awareness of Cardiac Death Risk

What Led to the Dramaatic Change in Death Rates? Kim Thinks The Whole Sport has become more aware of the risk and of the need to have emergency services available to runners, a conclusion he reacted after interviewing as many.

“What we found was that every one of that people got hands-on cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but the vast majority also also had immediative access to an automated external defibrillator.” He says.

That survival rate is comparable to the cardiac arrest survival rate in other public places that no make defibrillators routinely available, such as airports and cassinos, which have sent ever declines in in Deaths.

Kim says his findings offer additional evidence of how important it is to make cpr training available to race participants and to strategically place defibrillators along the racecource. It’s also important, he says, to better identify the most vulneable in a population before they run a race.

“These are more often potentially preventable events,” Kim says.

“Being Able to Identtify People, More Commonly Older Individuals with Unrecognized Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Doesn’st meaning meaning they can’t run a rather, it affords the opportunity to imperority to images Primary Preventive Cardiovascular Care And Potential Further Reduce The Risk of Cardiac Arrest during these events.

“The insurance of Sudden Cardiac Arrest DURING LONG-DISTANCE HASNRENGE In Over 20 Years. I think this is an important arena of future research.”

More information:
Cardiac Arrest during long-distance running races, Jama (2025). Doi: 10.1001/jama.2025.3026

Provided by emory university


Citation: Preventable Cardiac Deaths during Marathons are Down, Study Finds (2025, March 30) Retrieved 30 March 2025 from

This document is Subject to copyright. Apart from any Fair Dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

(Tagstotranslate) Medicine Research News (T) Medicine Research (T) Health Research News (T) Health Research (T) Health Science (T) Medicine Science

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *