Layperson out of hospital cardiac arrest resuscitation.

As a layman and bystander, how confident and knowledgable are you with first aid, in particular CPR?

Are you equally comfortable providing CPR to men and women?

According to recent research, women are less likely than men to receive resuscitation at the time of cardiac arrest outside of hospital. This is the case even in a witnessed cardiac arrest. (1, 2)

One reason women don’t receive resuscitation out of hospital could be that they tend to have a longer lifespan than men and thus more likely to be living on their own. However, even in a witnessed arrest, women are less likely to receive bystander resuscitation.

It is widely recognised that timely CPR administered outside of a hospital setting enhances survival odds. Consequently, the absence of bystander resuscitation reduces survival chances for women. (3)

Go To First Aid training provides training using anatomical male and female mannequins, aiming to help trainees feel more at ease and assured when performing resuscitation on women in the community.

1. BLOM M. T. et al 2019 available at https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article/40/47/3824/5492041?searchresult=1

2. MCDONALD, A. 2019 Available at https://www.bhf.org.uk/what-we-do/news-from-the-bhf/news-archive/2019/may/women-less-likely-to-receive-bystander-cpr-than-men-research-shows

3. Committee on the Treatment of Cardiac Arrest: Current Status and Future Directions; Board on Health Sciences Policy; Institute of Medicine; Graham R, McCoy MA, Schultz AM, editors. Strategies to Improve Cardiac Arrest Survival: A Time to Act. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2015 Sep 29. 3, The Public Experience with Cardiac Arrest.Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK321502/#