Major Progress Achieved by the Chen Yuguo / Xu Feng Team in Cardiac Arrest Resuscitation Research
inputtime：2025-11-01 10:56:00 From：Qilu Hospital
Recently, a research team led by Prof. Chen Yuguo and Prof. Xu Feng from the Department of Emergency Medicine of Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, the Ministry of Education Innovation Center for Basic Research on Critical and Severe Medicine, and the Shandong Provincial Clinical Research Center for Critical and Severe Medicine, published a study titled “Sex disparities in receipt of layperson bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation and survival for adults who experienced out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in China” in Resuscitation, a leading international journal in emergency medicine (CAS Top Tier, Zone 1).
The study was based on the BASIC cohort (The BASeline Investigation of Cardiac Arrest), China’s first national, prospective cardiac arrest registry initiated by the Qilu Hospital emergency medicine team. It evaluated sex disparities in bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (BCPR) and survival outcomes among patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) in China. The findings carry important implications for increasing BCPR rates and improving survival among cardiac arrest patients.
Dr. Ma Jingjing, Associate Chief Physician of Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, is the first author of the paper. Prof. Chen Yuguo and Prof. Xu Feng of Qilu Hospital serve as co-corresponding authors. Qilu Hospital of Shandong University is the first-author and corresponding-author institution.
Cardiac arrest poses a severe threat to human life and health, with extremely high mortality and disability rates, and is a major public health concern widely recognized in the medical community and society at large. Timely response and early intervention are crucial for improving the prognosis of OHCA patients.
BCPR is a key element of the “chain of survival” recommended by international guidelines and is among the earliest possible interventions for OHCA patients.
Based on the BASIC project, this study is the first to assess sex disparities in the provision of BCPR and survival outcomes among OHCA patients in China, and it provides practical recommendations for targeted improvements.
The results show that the overall BCPR rate in China remains low (18.8%), and female OHCA patients are less likely to receive BCPR than male patients (17.3% for women vs. 19.5% for men).
Subgroup analyses reveal that women with a lower likelihood of receiving BCPR are predominantly younger females aged 18–44. Among witnessed OHCA events, women were also less likely to receive BCPR compared with men.
Additionally, in the absence of dispatcher-assisted CPR (DA-CPR), women were less likely to receive layperson BCPR. However, no sex differences were found among patients who received DA-CPR.
Although women showed a trend toward lower survival to discharge or 30-day survival (0.6% vs. 0.9% for men) and lower rates of favorable neurological outcomes (0.4% vs. 0.6% for men), these differences were not statistically significant.
These findings suggest that BCPR rates in China remain suboptimal and that sex disparities persist. Systematic improvement is needed moving forward, including expanding public CPR training coverage and strengthening awareness of legal protections for bystander CPR, in order to raise the overall BCPR rate.
In addition, reforms to public CPR training—such as emphasizing legal and ethical protections, using neutral or female manikins, and directly addressing concerns related to resuscitating female patients—may help narrow the gender gap in BCPR.
Notably, no sex differences were observed among patients receiving DA-CPR, indicating that when official support is available, the public is more willing to provide aid, and patient outcomes—regardless of sex—are comparable.
Therefore, maximizing the use and strengthening the quality of DA-CPR is essential. This may include incorporating “recognizing and overcoming gender concerns” into dispatcher training curricula, optimizing dispatch systems to prioritize DA-CPR activation, and emphasizing the importance of “following dispatcher instructions” in public outreach.
Furthermore, continuing nationwide OHCA registry efforts will allow dynamic evaluation of care quality, facilitate early identification of new issues, and support targeted improvement measures, ultimately increasing BCPR rates and saving more lives.
The research team led by Chen Yuguo and Xu Feng has long been committed to clinical, basic, and translational research in cardiac arrest and other critical illnesses. The BASIC national cardiac arrest cohort established by the team has enrolled more than 500,000 patients.
Their research has been published in leading international and domestic journals, including Lancet Public Health, Lancet Regional Health, JAMA, JAMA Cardiology, Nature Reviews Cardiology, Circulation, European Heart Journal, JACC, Resuscitation, Critical Care Medicine, Chinese Medical Journal, and Chinese Journal of Emergency Medicine.
This work has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Distinguished Young Scholars Program, the National Key R&D Infrastructure Program, and the Shandong University Young Interdisciplinary Innovation Group, among other projects.
Article link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0300957225002886
The study was based on the BASIC cohort (The BASeline Investigation of Cardiac Arrest), China’s first national, prospective cardiac arrest registry initiated by the Qilu Hospital emergency medicine team. It evaluated sex disparities in bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (BCPR) and survival outcomes among patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) in China. The findings carry important implications for increasing BCPR rates and improving survival among cardiac arrest patients.
Dr. Ma Jingjing, Associate Chief Physician of Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, is the first author of the paper. Prof. Chen Yuguo and Prof. Xu Feng of Qilu Hospital serve as co-corresponding authors. Qilu Hospital of Shandong University is the first-author and corresponding-author institution.
Cardiac arrest poses a severe threat to human life and health, with extremely high mortality and disability rates, and is a major public health concern widely recognized in the medical community and society at large. Timely response and early intervention are crucial for improving the prognosis of OHCA patients.
BCPR is a key element of the “chain of survival” recommended by international guidelines and is among the earliest possible interventions for OHCA patients.
Based on the BASIC project, this study is the first to assess sex disparities in the provision of BCPR and survival outcomes among OHCA patients in China, and it provides practical recommendations for targeted improvements.
The results show that the overall BCPR rate in China remains low (18.8%), and female OHCA patients are less likely to receive BCPR than male patients (17.3% for women vs. 19.5% for men).
Subgroup analyses reveal that women with a lower likelihood of receiving BCPR are predominantly younger females aged 18–44. Among witnessed OHCA events, women were also less likely to receive BCPR compared with men.
Additionally, in the absence of dispatcher-assisted CPR (DA-CPR), women were less likely to receive layperson BCPR. However, no sex differences were found among patients who received DA-CPR.
Although women showed a trend toward lower survival to discharge or 30-day survival (0.6% vs. 0.9% for men) and lower rates of favorable neurological outcomes (0.4% vs. 0.6% for men), these differences were not statistically significant.
These findings suggest that BCPR rates in China remain suboptimal and that sex disparities persist. Systematic improvement is needed moving forward, including expanding public CPR training coverage and strengthening awareness of legal protections for bystander CPR, in order to raise the overall BCPR rate.
In addition, reforms to public CPR training—such as emphasizing legal and ethical protections, using neutral or female manikins, and directly addressing concerns related to resuscitating female patients—may help narrow the gender gap in BCPR.
Notably, no sex differences were observed among patients receiving DA-CPR, indicating that when official support is available, the public is more willing to provide aid, and patient outcomes—regardless of sex—are comparable.
Therefore, maximizing the use and strengthening the quality of DA-CPR is essential. This may include incorporating “recognizing and overcoming gender concerns” into dispatcher training curricula, optimizing dispatch systems to prioritize DA-CPR activation, and emphasizing the importance of “following dispatcher instructions” in public outreach.
Furthermore, continuing nationwide OHCA registry efforts will allow dynamic evaluation of care quality, facilitate early identification of new issues, and support targeted improvement measures, ultimately increasing BCPR rates and saving more lives.
The research team led by Chen Yuguo and Xu Feng has long been committed to clinical, basic, and translational research in cardiac arrest and other critical illnesses. The BASIC national cardiac arrest cohort established by the team has enrolled more than 500,000 patients.
Their research has been published in leading international and domestic journals, including Lancet Public Health, Lancet Regional Health, JAMA, JAMA Cardiology, Nature Reviews Cardiology, Circulation, European Heart Journal, JACC, Resuscitation, Critical Care Medicine, Chinese Medical Journal, and Chinese Journal of Emergency Medicine.
This work has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Distinguished Young Scholars Program, the National Key R&D Infrastructure Program, and the Shandong University Young Interdisciplinary Innovation Group, among other projects.
Article link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0300957225002886
