Elsevier

Resuscitation

Volume 81, Issue 5, May 2010, Pages 562-567
Resuscitation

Simulation and education
The effects of the new CPR guideline on attitude toward basic life support in Japan

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resuscitation.2009.12.012Get rights and content

Abstract

Background

There is no study regarding the influence of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) guideline renewal on citizen's attitude towards all basic life support (BLS) actions.

Methods and results

We conducted a questionnaire survey to new driver licence applicants who participated in the BLS course at driving schools either before (January 2007 to April 2007) or after (October 2007 to April 2008) the revision of the textbook. Upon completion of the course, participants were given a questionnaire concerning willingness to participate in CPR, early emergency call, telephone-assisted chest compression and use of an automated external defibrillator (AED). After the revision, the proportions of positive respondents to use of AED as well as to all the four scenarios significantly increased from 2331/3564 to 3693/5156 (odds ratio (OR) = 1.34) and from 1889/3443 to 3028/5126 (OR = 1.18), respectively. However, the new guideline slightly but significantly augmented the unwillingness to make an early call (236/3568 vs. 416/5283, OR = 0.83). Approximately 95% of respondents were willing to follow the telephone-assisted instruction of chest compression, while approximately 85% were eager to perform CPR on their own initiative. Multiple logistic regression analysis confirmed the results of mono-variate analysis, and identified previous CPR training, sex, rural area and student as other significant factors relating to attitude.

Conclusions

Future guidelines should emphasise the significance and benefit of early call in relation to telephone-assisted instruction of CPR or chest compression. The course instructors should be aware of the backgrounds of participants as to how this may relate to their willingness to participate.

Section snippets

Methods

The present study was approved by a committee of Ishikawa Designated Driving School Association.

Number of respondents

The total numbers of respondents were 3580 before revision of the textbook and 5310 after the revision. However, not all the respondents answered to all questions we asked. When the data were analysed, we excluded the respondents who gave no answer to a scenario or information we needed.

Comparison of backgrounds and characteristics of respondents between the two terms (Table 2)

The majority of the participants were aged between 17 and 29 years in both terms. There were significant but small differences in age, residential area and occupation between the two terms. The knowledge of how

Discussion

One of the characteristics of the new guideline based on the CoSTR is simplification. A recent study from Oslo, Norway reported a predominant increase in the rates of survival after guideline renewal.19 However, no study regarding the influence on citizen's attitude towards all BLS actions has been reported. The simplification of the CPR algorithm may reduce the unwillingness to BLS and CPR.

We elucidated a proportional increase in respondents with positive attitude to all the four scenarios and

Conclusion

We showed that the renewal of guideline increased the proportion of positive respondents to AED use and all the BLS actions. However, it failed to improve the unwillingness to early call, CPR on one's own initiative or telephone-assisted chest compression. The future revision of the guideline and the textbook should emphasise the significance and benefit of early call associated with telephone-assisted instruction of CPR. The course instructors should be aware of the backgrounds of participants

Conflict of interest

We have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all members in Ishikawa Designated Driving School Association for their corporation to the questionnaire survey.

References (21)

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A Spanish translated version of the abstract of this article appears as Appendix in the final online version at doi:10.1016/j.resuscitation.2009.12.012.

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