This prospective Australian cohort assessed 728 adult out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survivors at 12 months, representing 68.2% of eligible survivors. Fatigue affected 35.8% (250/699), anxiety 22.6% (162/716), and depression 18.0% (129/716). Higher symptom burden was associated with poorer quality of life, worse functional recovery and reduced return to work. Compared with population norms, fatigue was greater (standardized mean difference 0.64; 95% confidence interval 0.50–0.78), while depression was slightly greater and anxiety lower. These findings describe substantial symptom burden among survivors but do not establish that symptoms cause poorer recovery.
Persistent symptoms are an important component of cardiac-arrest survivorship beyond hospital discharge. Their association with poorer recovery highlights a patient-centred outcome domain, without establishing causality or an effective intervention.
Study limitation: Only 68.2% of eligible 12-month survivors completed follow-up, creating potential nonresponse bias; observational associations cannot establish causality.
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