BACKGROUND: The underlying etiology of sudden cardiac death varies with age and is likely to be reflected in type and number of healthcare contacts. We aimed to determine the specific type of healthcare contact shortly before out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) across ages. METHODS: OHCA patients were identified in the nationwide Danish Cardiac Arrest Register and Copenhagen Medical Emergency Care Unit (2001-2006). We matched every OHCA patients with 10 controls on sex and age. Healthcare contacts were evaluated 30 days before event by individual-level-linkage of nationwide registers. RESULTS: We identified 16,924 OHCA patients, median age 70.0 years (Q1-Q3: 59-80). OHCA patients had a higher number of hospitalizations and received more pharmacotherapy compared to the control population across all ages (p for difference 89) were