Investigation of the Effect of Using a Metronome or Song on the Lay Rescuers' Quality of Chest Compressions

Abstract

Introduction: This study aimed to determine the quality of chest compressions performed by lay rescuers assisted by a healthcare worker over the telephone and investigate the effect of metronome use or the Stayin’ Alive song on the quality of these chest compressions.
 Material and Method: This study was conducted prospectively at the emergency department of a tertiary hospital. The lay rescuers were assisted by an emergency medicine specialist over the telephone to perform chest compressions using the CPR Lilly PRO+ simulator. Three groups were formed, and the same participants performed three cycles of chest compressions over the telephone for two minutes first without any external stimulus (Group 1), then using a metronome as an external stimulus (Group 2), and finally by listening to the Stayin’ Alive song as another external stimulus (Group 3). The obtained data were analyzed with IBM SPSS v. 23.0.
 Results: There was no statistically significant difference between the three groups in terms of the target number of chest compressions (p=0.404). However, the compression depth and chest compression fraction statistically significantly differed between the groups (p