Abstract
Introduction: Early, high-quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) increases survival rates in cardiac arrest. Although most cases occur at home and are witnessed, CPR is performed in few of these cases. For this reason, teaching CPR is especially important in relatives of patients with high cardiovascular risk. Therefore, the aim of this study was to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Family and Friends CPR course in the theoretical and practical learning of cardiopulmonary resuscitation in relatives of patients with high cardiovascular risk or who have suffered a cardiovascular event. Materials and methods: We carried out an analytical, quasi-experimental, prospective, before-and-after study. We selected 20 participants during outpatient consultation at the Cardiology Department of the Cayetano Heredia Hospital in Lima, Peru. A theoretical knowledge questionnaire and an adult CPR checklist were used to assess the level of theoretical and practical knowledge, respectively. The theoretical knowledge was measured at three points in time (before, immediately after and one month after the intervention) and the practical skills at two points in time (immediately after and a month after the intervention). Results: The level of theoretical knowledge was low (8.64 ± 2.47) before the intervention, achieving a good level of knowledge immediately after (17.33 ± 2.02) and one month later (16.5 ± 1.91). Furthermore, the medians of the level of practical knowledge were 15 immediately after and one month later, showing that they maintained a good level of practical knowledge. Conclusions: The Family and Friends CPR course was effective in the theoretical and practical learning of CPR in the studied population, and was sustained one month after the intervention.
Highlights
High-quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) increases survival rates in cardiac arrest
The majority of trained people were female. This distribution aligns with other studies such as the one of Case et al, 2018 [21] in which women were identified as the ones who most frequently (65.6%) activate the emergency response in cases of of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). It agrees with the exposed by González-Salvado et al, 2020 [22] in which cardiac arrest witnesses are more frequently women, namely wives or relatives of the victims, which suggests that teaching should be directed to this group of people
This is the first study in Peru that trains relatives of patients with a high cardiovascular risk, who have a higher risk of witnessing a cardiac arrest compared to the general population
Summary
High-quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) increases survival rates in cardiac arrest. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Family and Friends CPR course in the theoretical and practical learning of cardiopulmonary resuscitation in relatives of patients with high cardiovascular risk or who have suffered a cardiovascular event. All of these risk factors affect the cardiac arrest incidence, being approximately 6/1000 person-years in patients with any previous cardiac disease, while in people with no cardiac pathology, this incidence decreases to 0.8/1000 person-age [17] For this reason, teaching CPR to relatives of patients with high cardiovascular risk or who have suffered a cardiovascular event would have a high impact, as performing interventions directed to this population (which has more probabilities to be witnesses of a cardiac arrest) would be a cost-effective strategy to increase the CPR rates performed by witnesses [18]. Our study aimed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Family & Friends CPR course of the American Heart Association in learning CPR in relatives of patients with high cardiovascular risk or who have suffered a cardiovascular event
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