Introduction: The World Health Organization (WHO; Geneva, Switzerland) recommends lay first responder (LFR) programs as a first step toward establishing formal Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to address injury. There is a scarcity of research investigating LFR program development in predominantly rural settings of LMICs. Study Objective: A pilot LFR program was launched and assessed over 12 months to investigate the feasibility of leveraging pre-existing transportation providers to scale up prehospital emergency care in rural, low-resource settings of LMICs. Methods: An LFR program was established in rural Chad to evaluate curriculum efficacy, using a validated 15-question pre-/post-test to measure participant knowledge improvement. Pre-/post-test score distributions were compared using a Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test. For test evaluation, each pre-test question was mapped to its corresponding post-test analog and compared using McNemar’s Chi-Squared Test to examine knowledge acquisition on a by-question basis. Longitudinal prehospital care was evaluated with incident reports, while program cost was tracked using a one-way sensitivity analysis. Qualitative follow-up surveys and semi-interviews were conducted at 12 months, with initial participants and randomly sampled motorcycle taxi drivers, and used a constructivist grounded theory approach to understand the factors motivating continued voluntary participation to inform future program continuity. The consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ) checklist was used to guide design, analysis, and reporting the qualitative results. Results: A total of 108 motorcycle taxi participants demonstrated significant knowledge improvement (P <.001) across three of four curricular categories: scene safety, airway and breathing, and bleeding control. Lay first responders treated 71 patients over six months, encountering five deaths, and provided patient transport in 82% of encounters. Lay first responders reported an average confidence score of 8.53/10 (n = 38). In qualitative follow-up surveys and semi-structured interviews, the ability to care for the injured, new knowledge/skills, and the resultant gain in social status and customer acquisition motivated continued involvement as LFRs. Ninety-six percent of untrained, randomly sampled motorcycle taxi drivers reported they would be willing to pay to participate in future training courses. Conclusion: Lay first responder programs appear feasible and cost-effective in rural LMIC settings. Participants demonstrate significant knowledge acquisition, and after 12 months of providing emergency care, report sustained voluntary participation due to social and financial benefits, suggesting sustainability and scalability of LFR programs in low-resource settings.
BackgroundInjury disproportionately affects low-income and middle-income countries, yet robust emergency medical services are often lacking to effectively address the prehospital injury burden. A half-day prehospital emergency trauma care curriculum was designed for first responders and piloted in the Sacatepéquez, Chimaltenango, and Escuintla departments in Guatemala.MethodsThree hundred and fifty-four law enforcement personnel, firefighters, and civilians volunteered to participate in a 5-hour emergency care course teaching scene safety, triage, airway management, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, fracture management, and victim transport. A validated 26-question pretest/post-test study instrument was contextually adapted and used to measure overall test performance, the primary study outcome, as well as test performance stratified by occupation, the secondary study outcome. Pretest/post-test score distributions were compared using a Wilcoxon signed-rank test. For test evaluation, knowledge acquisition on a by-question and by-category basis was examined using McNemar’s χ² test, whereas item difficulty indices used frequency-of-distribution tests and item discrimination indices used point biserial correlation.ResultsTwo hundred and eighty-seven participants qualified for inclusion. Participant mean pretest versus post-test scores improved 24 percentage points after course completion (43% vs 68%, p<0.001). Cronbach’s alpha yielded values of 0.86 (pretest) and 0.94 (post-test), suggesting testing instrument reliability. Between-group analyses demonstrated law enforcement and civilian participants improved more than firefighters (p<0.001). Performance on 23 of 26 questions improved significantly. All test questions except one showed an increase in their PPDI.DiscussionA 1-day, contextually adapted, 5-hour course targeting laypeople demonstrates significant improvements in emergency care knowledge. Future investigations of similar curricula should be trialed in alternate low-resource settings with increased civilian participation to evaluate efficacy and replicability as adequate substitutes for longer courses. This study suggests future courses teaching emergency care for lay first responders may be reduced to 5 hours duration.Level of evidenceLevel II.
Introduction Traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) constitutes a considerable portion of the global injury burden, disproportionately affecting low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Prehospital care can address TSCI morbidity and mortality, but emergency medical services are lacking in LMICs. The current standard of prehospital care for TSCI in sub-Saharan Africa and other LMICs is unknown. Methods This review sought to describe the state of training and resources for prehospital TSCI management in sub-Saharan Africa and other LMICs. Articles published between 1 January 1995 and 1 March 2020 were identified using PMC, MEDLINE, and Scopus databases following PRISMA-ScR guidelines. Inclusion criteria spanned first responder training programs delivering prehospital care for TSCI. Two reviewers assessed full texts meeting inclusion criteria for quality using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale and extracted relevant characteristics to assess trends in the state of prehospital TSCI care in sub-Saharan Africa and other LMICs. Results Of an initial 482 articles identified, 23 met inclusion criteria, of which ten were set in Africa, representing eight countries. C-spine immobilization precautions for suspected TSCI patients is the most prevalent prehospital TSCI intervention for and is in every LMIC first responder program reviewed, except one. Numerous first responder programs providing TSCI care operate without C-collar access (n = 13) and few teach full spinal immobilization (n = 5). Rapid transport is most frequently reported as the key mortality-reducing factor (n = 11). Despite more studies conducted in the Southeast Asia/Middle East (n = 13), prehospital TSCI studies in Africa are more geographically diverse, but responder courses are shorter, produce fewer professional responders, and have limited C-collar availability. Discussion Deficits in training and resources to manage TSCI highlights the need for large prospective trials evaluating alternative C-spine immobilization methods for TCSI that are more readily available across diverse LMIC environments and the importance of understanding resource variability to sustainably improve prehospital TSCI care.
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