Duty Firefighter Cardiac Deaths Highlight Potential Screening Gaps
A study published in JACC: Advances reveals that cardiac events are an increasing cause of on-duty deaths among U.S. firefighters. Researchers found that current screening methods may be insufficient, as many victims showed signs of heart disease not typically caught by standard exams.
Why it matters
This highlights a critical occupational health gap for first responders, suggesting a need for more specialized cardiac screening protocols to prevent preventable deaths.
Cardiac death remains a substantial contributor to on-duty mortality of U.S. firefighters, and drivers of this trend may not be well identified by the current screening approaches, according to a brief report published Oct. 21 in JACC: Advances .
Sandy Y. Joung, MBA, MSHS , Alan C. Kwan, MD , et al., examined temporal trends in duty-related cardiac death among U.S. firefighters and systematically reviewed available autopsy findings to determine if observed pathoanatomic patterns align with current prevention strategies. U.S. Fire Administration records of on-duty firefighter fatalities from 1990 to 2025 were queried, and firefighters aged 15 to 74 years (mean age of 46 years) were included. Primary trend analyses were restricted to 1999 through 2019 to reduce distortion from excess COVID-related mortality.
Deaths attributed to sudden "cardiovascular event/heart attack" were classified as cardiac deaths.
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