Saving more lives by enhancing the public’s CPR skillsA 60 seconds CPR demonstration video

According to the findings of this study, those people who watched the demonstration video had a high likelihood of taking action compared to those who didn’t. In the US, one of the top causes of death is cardiac arrest. The lead author of this study, Dr. Bentley Bobrow said that they were figuring out some novel, effective ways of helping the public gain a better understanding about cardiac arrest and not only be willing but also able to perform a CPR. The public can now watch the 60 second video on phone, on the Internet or even when relaxing at home.
This video could go a long way in saving thousands of lives. Each year, about 300,000 people in United States suffer a cardiac arrest outside of hospitals and only about 30 percent or less of these victims do actually get CPR or emergency help from bystanders. But a bystander CPR can go a long in improving the rate of survival among those with the cardiac arrest. The rates of survival widely vary among different communities and normally range between 3 and 15 percent. Most of the variation in survival rates is majorly due to CPR. Some people are not comfortable in doing it and others have no idea of exactly what they need to do. According to this study, a short message could greatly help people when it comes to giving effective CPR.
Once a person has collapsed, people are not ready to react immediately due to lack of confidence and others are not ready to perform mouth resuscitation on strangers. However, it is very disastrous not to do anything and untrained person trying to help causes no harm. The study divided 336 randomly into four groups. The control group didn’t watch the video. The other three groups watched an 8 minute video, 5 minute video and a 60 seconds video that demonstrated how to do a CPR in times of emergency.

Watching a CPR video improves one’s skills

As a way of putting their skills to test, the participants were required to role play as to what they could do in case someone collapsed suddenly in their presence. Software programmed with a manikin was used for gauging the depth and rate of chest compressions. Upon being tested after two months, less than 1% of those who watched the video did nothing in comparison to the 23% of those who never show the video. It was clear that persons who watched the CPR video had much better skills compared to those who didn’t. It was also found that the length of video viewed had no effect and participants achieved comparable chest depths and rates regardless of the video seen. However, the researchers said that they didn’t know how this would be translated when it comes to actual emergency situations.