Motivating People to Learn Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Use of Automated External Defibrillators

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to test the effect of a motivational message on the intention of laypersons to learn cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillator (AED) use. A pretest-posttest, double-blind, randomized design was used with 220 community-dwelling adults. Participants were randomly assigned to the treatment group reading the CPR and AED pamphlet emphasizing learning CPR and AED use to save someone they love and the 3-minute window for response time; or to the comparison group reading the identical pamphlet without the 2 motivational statements. Intention to learn CPR and AED use and to look for AEDs in public areas was measured before and after reading the respective pamphlet. No significant difference emerged between the groups for the number of participants planning to learn CPR and AED use. A significant number of participants in both groups increased intention to learn CPR and AED use. Significantly more treatment participants than comparison participants planned to routinely look for AEDs in public areas after reading the pamphlet, however. Teaching critical facts such as the low survival rate for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest might encourage laypersons to learn CPR and AED use. Routinely teaching family members of people at risk for a cardiac arrest about the short window of time in which CPR and AED use must begin and encouraging them to learn about CPR and AEDs to save someone they love may encourage family members to identify the location of AEDs in public places.

Barriers and facilitators to public access defibrillation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: a systematic review

“…Thirteen surveys 20, 34, 36-43, 48-49, 93 , three qualitative studies 33,47,96 , one before-and-after study 45 and one RCT 46 reported on issues that relate to willingness to use public-access AEDs for OHCA.…”

“…McDonald et al 46 conducted an RCT where a control group received a leaflet encouraging CPR and AED use, and the intervention group received the same leaflet with two additional "motivational" messages about CPR and AEDs. Both groups were laypeople with no previous experience of CPR.…”

Educating sports people about CPR and first aid in general practice: the Savtember project

“…To our knowledge, no study using a brief intervention to raise awareness about CPR /first aid has been previously published. One study assessed the effectiveness of messages provided in pamphlet form, in increasing the general population's motivation to learn CPR but it did not involve GPs (McDonald et al, 2010).…”

“…One study assessed the effectiveness of messages provided in pamphlet form, in increasing the general population’s motivation to learn CPR but it did not involve GPs (McDonald et al. , 2010 ).…”