Scottish Study Reviews Public Attitudes to Bystander CPR

A recent study by the Scottish government—titled Exploring the Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behavior of the General Public to Responding to Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest—collected data for the purpose of creating an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest strategy that would improve patient outcomes.

The study, by way of survey, revealed some important information.

Only 52% of respondents were trained in CPR and, of that 52%, 44% were trained over five years ago.

Just over 20% of respondents said they were not sure when CPR would be required, and 50% said they would not be confident enough to administer CPR. Confidence to conduct CPR was higher among people who had been trained.

Social factors played into the responses as well.

Older people were less likely to be trained in CPR and be willing to administer it, and were most likely to have out-of-date CPR training. People in manual labor and long-time unemployed people were less likely to have CPR training than people in professional managerial positions, and people who were employed in general were more likely to be recently CPR trained and be more willing to apply their training than their unemployed counterparts.

Based on these responses, the study suggested a few improvement strategies.

The study says engagement is important to improve the rate people who are not trained in CPR seeking training. Specifically, the engagement initiative would target older people.

Also suggested in the study is addressing barriers to administering CPR by building confidence and addressing myths and fears that surround CPR, such as further injuring the patient or catching a disease.

For more information on the study’s findings, outcomes and methodology, click here.