Assessment of Family Members’ First Aid Education in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background: Providing instant care for life-saving or rescuing the injured or sick people requires having a considerable amount of first aid (FA) knowledge and experience. The current work sheds some light on the current status of Saudi family members’ first aid knowledge and experience aiming at reaching a sustainable decrease in the number of deaths and unnecessary losses. Methodology: A questionnaire was used to collect (N=447) participants’ information 35.6% (159/447) males and 64.4% (288/447) females from a number of Saudi cities. The collected data were analyzed using IBM SPSS v 25. Results: The results showed that 48.3% (216/447) of the participants have good FA experience and only 7.2% (32/447) have excellent FA experience. The majority of the participants 65.3% (292/447) were not FA-certified, 22.8% (102/447) attended an FA course, and 11.9% (53/447) were certified first aiders. 93.7% (419/447) of the participants think that the community’s FA awareness is low. The results also reported statistically significant association between being related to health care sector and FA experience χ2(3) = 56.8, p = 0.000, witnessing accidents and gender v χ2(7) = 19.1, p = 0.008, and having got FA tools and FA experience χ2(3) = 28.5, p = 0.000. Conclusion: The current study’s results along with numerous similar research provoke a public outcry to take practical steps towards enhancing a sustainable community’s FA education through campaigns, workshops, and training courses.