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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Policy
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1389675

Insights from Coronial Recommendations for Preventing Natural Deaths in Sport and Recreation in Québec, Canada

Provisionally accepted
Philippe Richard Philippe Richard 1*Paul-André Perron Paul-André Perron 2Jérémie Sylvain-Morneau Jérémie Sylvain-Morneau 3Paul Poirier Paul Poirier 4,5
  • 1 Direction de la sécurité dans le loisir et le sport, Ministry of Education, Recreation and Sports, Québec, Canada
  • 2 Bureau du coroner du Québec, Québec, Canada
  • 3 Institut National de Santé Publique du Québec, Faculty of Medicine, Laval University, Québec, Canada
  • 4 Institut universitaire de cardiologie et de pneumologie de Québec, Québec, Canada
  • 5 Faculty of Pharmacy, Université Laval, Québec, Canada

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Introduction. This descriptive retrospective study analyzed coronial recommendations for natural deaths in sport and recreation from January 2006 to December 2019 using data from the Bureau du coroner du Québec.Methods. Reports with recommendations were analyzed by sex, age group, cause of death, context, and activity. The nature of recommendations was assessed using a public health-based model. Thematic analysis was conducted following a four-phase approach in which themes developed were emphasized and further connected with existing literature.Results. Reports involving individuals aged 18-24 and reports related to ice hockey were significantly more likely to contain recommendations. Reports related to individuals ≥ 45 years old, or related to cycling or hunting had higher death frequencies. Most recommendations aligned with the public healthbased model but specifying implementation time frames was rare (11.7%). Nearly 60% of coroner's recommendations focused on automatic external defibrillator implementation, delivery and training.Discussion. Mitigation of sudden cardiac arrest risk for individuals ≥ 45 years old, timely treatment of life-threatening arrhythmias especially for activity practised in remote regions and specifying implementation time frames were identified as improvement areas. The multi-faceted approach to enhancing public access defibrillation developed by the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation in 2022 addresses recurrent themes covered by coroners and holds the potential to inform evidence-based decision making.

    Keywords: Sport and recreation, Mortality, Natural causes, Sudden cardiac death, recommendations, automated external defibrillators

    Received: 23 Feb 2024; Accepted: 05 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Richard, Perron, Sylvain-Morneau and Poirier. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Philippe Richard, Direction de la sécurité dans le loisir et le sport, Ministry of Education, Recreation and Sports, Québec, Canada

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.