March 14, 2011
Training Video Boosts Hands-only CPR
(Ivanhoe Newswire) "“Research participants who viewed a brief training video on hands-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) were more likely to attempt CPR, and perform better in an emergency than participants who did not view the video, according to findings reported in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.
Every year nearly 300,000 people suffer from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in the United States, and often the survival rates are low. In these instances, hands-only CPR could mean the difference between life and death. Only 26 percent of bystanders attempt CPR in the United States, according to Bentley J. Bobrow, M.D., lead author of the study and clinical associate professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine in the Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix, and the University of Arizona."Chest compression "“only CPR , also known as hands-only CPR has been shown in studies to be at least as effective as standard CPR with mouth-to-mouth ventilation for adult primary cardiac arrest victims. And because of its simplicity, hands-only CPR may be quicker and easier for lay rescuers to learn, remember and perform than conventional CPR," Bobrow was quoted as saying.
Bobrow and his team of researchers conducted a study on 336 adults without recent CPR training, separating them into four groups. The groups consisted of participants who viewed an ultra brief CPR training video; a brief video; a brief video with practice, and no video at all. Half of the participants were tested immediately, and the other half tested two months later.
The results: Participants trained in the immediate and delayed testing groups were more likely to attempt hands-only CPR, while almost 25 percent of the untrained group did not attempt at all. The immediate testing group did perform slightly better than the delayed testing group as far as average compressions per minute, however there were no significant differences in the average compression rate and compression depth between both groups. The untrained group was significantly outperformed in every aspect by both groups who viewed the training video.
Bobrow notes that this study is the first of its kind in testing the effectiveness of an ultra brief CPR training video (60 seconds in length).
"This finding has enormous public health implications because of the documented hesitancy of untrained rescuers to even attempt CPR and because it is known that bystander resuscitation attempt improves outcomes compared to no CPR."
SOURCE: Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, published online March 10, 2011