In the article by Jin et al, “Disparities in Premature Cardiac Death Among US Counties From 1999–2017: Temporal Trends and Key Drivers,” which published on July 29, 2020 and appeared in the August 4, 2020 issue of the Journal (J Am Heart Assoc. 2020;9:e017529. DOI: 10.1161/JAHA.120.016340), corrections are needed.
The authors neglected to explain their reasons for selecting the specific ICD‐10 codes to define heart disease. In Methods section, the last paragraph on page 2 has been corrected to include this information. The paragraph now reads as follows:
“This study defined PCD as any unexpected death attributable to cardiac disease that occurred at an age between 35 and 74 years.6,17 Vaartjes et al18 conducted a literature review to identify the most common causes of premature sudden cardiac death. In accordance with previous studies, we selected the sudden cardiac death categories as follows in ICD‐10 codes: ischemic heart disease (I21), dilated cardiomyopathy (I42.0), hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (I42.1 and I42.2), other cardiomyopathies (I42.3–I42.9), arrhythmia (I45.6, I45.8, I46.1, I46.9, I47.2, I49.0, I49.3, I49.5, I49.8, I49.9, and R96), congenital heart disease (Q20, Q21, Q22, Q23, Q24.2, Q24.4, Q24.5, Q24.6, Q24.8, Q24.9, Q87.4, I34.1, and I35.0), myocarditis (I40), and others (I25.4). The categories of sudden cardiac death were consistent with several prior studies.19,20 Based on a majority of studies,6–8,11,12,21 we defined out‐of‐hospital cardiac death as any cardiac death occurring in outpatient or emergency department settings, dead on arrival, or pretransport location, including decedent's home, hospice facility, nursing home, and long‐term care home.”
The following references have been added to the article:
18. Vaartjes I, Hendrix A, Hertogh EM, Grobbee DE, Doevendans PA, Mosterd A, Bots ML. Sudden death in persons younger than 40 years of age: incidence and causes. Eur J Cardiovasc Prev Rehabil. 2009;16:592‐596.
19. El‐Assaad I, Al‐Kindi SG, Aziz PF. Trends of Out‐of‐Hospital Sudden Cardiac Death Among Children and Young Adults. Pediatrics. 2017;140(6):e20171438. DOI: 10.1542/peds.2017‐1438.
20. Winkel BG, Risgaard B, Bjune T, Jabbari R, Lynge TH, Glinge C, Bundgaard H, Haunsø S, Tfelt‐Hansen J. Gender differences in sudden cardiac death in the young‐a nationwide study. BMC Cardiovasc Disord. 2017;17:19‐26.
The authors have also added a citation on page 9, in the second paragraph of the Discussion, to further support the statement “Although the American Heart Association has set a strategic goal of reducing PCDs of all Americans by 20% from 2010 to 2020,29,30 our findings suggest that a deceleration in the decline of PCD rates has occurred since 2011, and, if this trend continues, strategic goals may not be reached.”
The following reference has been added to the article:
30. Sidney S, Quesenberry CP, Jaffe MG, Sorel M, Nguyen‐Huynh MN, Kushi LH, Go AS, Rena JS. Recent Trends in Cardiovascular Mortality in the United States and Public Health Goals. JAMA Cardiol. 2016;1:594–599.
The authors regret the errors.
The corrections have been made to the current online version of the article, which is available here: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/JAHA.120.016340
(J Am Heart Assoc. 2021;10:e014639. DOI: 10.1161/JAHA.119.014639.)