Know CPR? Know AED? Can do Marathon?

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In a paper published in the late spring of this year in the Journal of the American Medical Association, a title that captures a reader's attention, which is unusual in a medical journal, is "Cardiac Arrest During Long-Distance Running Races" (Kim et al., 2025). One element of the article explores ways in which first responder assistance can help participants in long-distance running events, specifically marathons and half-marathons, when they experience cardiac symptoms. It is hypothesized that more people might participate in running events if they knew that someone along the race course was trained in CPR, learned how to use an AED, and was familiar with activating the emergency medical system, for instance, more laypeople.

Interestingly, the number of people in the US participating in some race events has increased significantly, with approximately 30 million men and women signing up for these events over the past few decades. This trend has actually tripled since the turn of the century, particularly since 2010 (Kim et al., 2025). The primary cardiac risk factors for the small percentage of participants who experienced a cardiac event were relatively low, at 0.60 per 100,000 participants. Of those cardiac events, the main culprit was coronary artery disease, and it is still the number one killer of US adults (Kim et al., 2025; CDC, 2021). As noted, the paper addresses elements of marathon racing and preparation for medical care. Who knows if individuals with cardiac risk factors, those seeking to adopt a healthy lifestyle, and those more likely to be running enthusiasts would sign up for races if it were known that more people were trained in CPR and AED application?

References:

Kim, J. H., Rim, A. J., Miller, J. T., Jackson, M., Patel, N., Rajesh, S., Ko, Y.-A., DiGregorio, H., Chiampas, G., McGillivray, D., Holder, J., & Baggish, A. L. (2025). Cardiac arrest during long-distance running races. JAMA, 333(19), 1699. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2025.3026

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021). FastStats - Leading Causes of Death. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm