Deaths involving chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cardiac arrest in older US adults, 1999-2023: A retrospective cross-sectional study.
6 affiliations
- 1Department of Internal Medicine, Saidu Medical College, Swat, Pakistan.
- 2Department of Internal Medicine, Rawalpindi Medical University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
- 3Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan.
- 4Department of Internal Medicine, Faisalabad Medical University, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
- 5Department of Internal Medicine, Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, Ludhiana, India.
- 6Department of Internal Medicine, Tentishev Satkynbai Memorial Asian Medical Institute, Kant, Kyrgyzstan.
Abstract
National long-term trends and disparities in deaths in which both chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cardiac arrest are recorded on death certificates are not well characterized. We used CDC WONDER Multiple Cause of Death data (1999-2023) to identify US adults aged ≥ 65 years whose death certificates listed both COPD (ICD-10 J41-J44) and cardiac arrest (I46) as underlying or contributing causes. Age-adjusted mortality rates (AAMRs) were stratified by sex, race/ethnicity, region, and urbanization; the urbanization analysis was limited to 1999 to 2020 because those data were not available after 2020. Trends were analyzed using annual percentage changes (APCs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs); P < .05 was considered statistically significant. Among 7,18,280 deaths involving concurrent coding of COPD and cardiac arrest, AAMRs declined from 86.4 in 1999 to 52.5 in 2023. A significant decrease occurred from 1999 to 2006 (APC: -2.87; P = .01), followed by a plateau and a further decline from 2021 to 2023 (APC: -4.77; P < .001). Older men exhibited higher AAMRs than older women (86.8 vs 55.2). Non-Hispanic (NH) White individuals had the highest mortality (69.7), followed by NH Black/African American (64.3) and Hispanic/Latino (60.7) populations. The West region reported the highest AAMR (98.9). During 1999 to 2020, nonmetropolitan residents had higher AAMRs than metropolitan residents (70.8 vs 67.9). Population-level mortality records involving both COPD and cardiac arrest declined overall but remained heterogeneous across demographic and geographic strata. These findings describe concurrent coding on death certificates and do not establish that COPD increases the risk of cardiac arrest or causes the observed deaths.
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BibTeX
@article{khan2026deaths,
title = {{Deaths involving chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cardiac arrest in older US adults, 1999-2023: A retrospective cross-sectional study.}},
author = {Shahid Khan and Jawad Zafar Mayo and Dina Mohammed and Muhammad Aamer and Priya Goyal and Muhammad Husnain Ahmad and Abdullah Raza Rashid and Humza Saeed},
journal = {Medicine},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1097/md.0000000000051160},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42888584},
note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Deaths involving chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cardiac arrest in older US adults, 1999-2023: A retrospective cross-sectional study.
AU - Shahid Khan
AU - Jawad Zafar Mayo
AU - Dina Mohammed
AU - Muhammad Aamer
AU - Priya Goyal
AU - Muhammad Husnain Ahmad
AU - Abdullah Raza Rashid
AU - Humza Saeed
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
JO - Medicine
DO - 10.1097/md.0000000000051160
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42888584
AB - National long-term trends and disparities in deaths in which both chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cardiac arrest are recorded on death certificates are not well characterized. We used CDC WONDER Multiple Cause of Death data (1999-2023) to identify US adults aged ≥ 65 years whose death certificates listed both COPD (ICD-10 J41-J44) and cardiac arrest (I46) as underlying or contributing causes. Age-adjusted mortality rates (AAMRs) were stratified by sex, race/ethnicity, region, and urbanization; the urbanization analysis was limited to 1999 to 2020 because those data were not available after 2020. Trends were analyzed using annual percentage changes (APCs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs); P < .05 was considered statistically significant. Among 7,18,280 deaths involving concurrent coding of COPD and cardiac arrest, AAMRs declined from 86.4 in 1999 to 52.5 in 2023. A significant decrease occurred from 1999 to 2006 (APC: -2.87; P = .01), followed by a plateau and a further decline from 2021 to 2023 (APC: -4.77; P < .001). Older men exhibited higher AAMRs than older women (86.8 vs 55.2). Non-Hispanic (NH) White individuals had the highest mortality (69.7), followed by NH Black/African American (64.3) and Hispanic/Latino (60.7) populations. The West region reported the highest AAMR (98.9). During 1999 to 2020, nonmetropolitan residents had higher AAMRs than metropolitan residents (70.8 vs 67.9). Population-level mortality records involving both COPD and cardiac arrest declined overall but remained heterogeneous across demographic and geographic strata. These findings describe concurrent coding on death certificates and do not establish that COPD increases the risk of cardiac arrest or causes the observed deaths.
SN - 0304-5412
SN - 1536-5964
ER -