Abstract P75: Dissemination of CPR Skills to the Public - Can Schoolchildren Ensure Success?

Training a large fraction of the general population in CPR could have major public health benefit if those most likely to witness cardiac arrest are trained. Mass distribution of self-training manikins as a two-tiered strategy with school children as first tier has been described as successful, but without information on second tier age or information strategy to second tier. We studied three different attempts at reaching older second tier persons. In groups 1 and 2 first tier consisted of 7 th graders and in group 3 high school and medical school students. Information about the desirable second tier age group was given in writing prior to the distribution. In groups 1 and 3 information was only directed towards first tier. In group 2 both first tier, their parents and teachers were informed. The first tier participants reported the number of second tier trained for age-groups 12–25 years, 25–50 years, and >50 years. Approximately 64000 (group 1), 63000 (group 2) and 81 (group 3) self-education kits were provided with 2.7, 1.9, and 3.7 lay-rescuers trained per kit respectively (p<0.05) (Table 1 ). Informing also the parents of the first tier prior to the distribution did not positively impact the number of second tier trained lay-rescuers, but higher age of first tier did. We speculate that 7 th graders are too young to successfully disseminate CPR to those most likely to witness out of hospital cardiac arrest. Table 1. Percentage reported trained in first and second tier divided into age-groups.