A new study suggests that residing on higher floors in an apartment building may lower your chances of survival in the case of a heart attack, Fox61 reports.
The Canadian Medical Association Journal released the study on Monday called, "Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in high-rise buildings: delays to patient care and effect on survival."
For the study, the researchers "examined the relations between floor of patient contact and survival after cardiac arrest in residential buildings."
The object was to determine if the floor one lives on in a high-rise building influenced the chances for survival in the case of a heart attack at home.
"As the number of high-rise buildings continues to increase and as population density rises in major urban centres, it is important to determine the effect of delays to patient care in high-rise buildings on survival after cardiac arrest," study author Ian Drennan, a paramedic with York Region Paramedic Services and a researcher at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute at St. Michael's Hospital, said in a press release, The Globe And Mail reported.
The researchers analyzed data from Toronto's emergency response network from January 2007 to December 2012. They examined 7,842 cases involving adults who suffered from cardiac arrest without a specific cause.
Out of the total number of cases, 3.8 percent, or 300 of the 7,842, survived the heart attack and were discharged from the hospital. The results showed that living on the third floor or above resulted in a 2.6 percent survival rate, while those living below the third floor had a 4.2 percent survival rate.
Researchers noted that younger patients and those who had a witness with them were more likely to survive. However, they noted that floor number independently played a role in the survival rate.
The report also noted in its findings that response time was a leading cause of the lower survival rate.
The study concluded that, "interventions aimed at shortening response times to treatment of cardiac arrest in high-rise buildings may increase survival."
