Poster Presentation

Improving Public Understanding of SCA Motivates Bystanders to Give CPR & Apply an AED—actions That Will Save Thousands More Lives

Primary Presenter(s)

• 

  Mary Newman, MS

  President
  Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation

Co-Presenter(s)

• 

  Jennifer Chap

  President and Co-Founder
  StrataVerve and BuddyCPR

A national study conducted for the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation by StrataVerve has found that understanding sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) drives bystander action to give CPR and apply an AED. Exposure to a lay-friendly definition of SCA significantly increases the number of people “very likely” to give CPR or apply an AED in an emergency, which could save thousands more lives each year.

Our earlier baseline study found that public confusion and unfamiliarity with SCA contributes to low SCA survival.

We hypothesized a uniform, lay-friendly definition of SCA could increase likelihood to act.

Research methods included an online quantitative survey among a representative national sample of 2,232 adults and in-person qualitative interviews among 20 adults from 10 states.

Upon exposure to a peer-reviewed, lay-friendly definition of SCA, 26% more respondents indicated they would be “very likely” to give CPR and 38% more respondents said they would be “very likely” to apply an AED. When the bystander CPR increase factor is applied to 2017 data from CARES, an additional 13.7% who suffer SCA outside hospitals could survive to hospital discharge. This means thousands more lives could be saved each year if people understand SCA and the importance of bystander intervention.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe three (3) ways to educate citizens that can lead to a comprehensive change to a culture of excellence and improved CPR training in the community, schools and workplace.