Awareness, knowledge and attitudes towards cardiopulmonary resuscitation among people with and without heart disease relatives in South China: a cross-sectional survey.

Objectives: To assess the awareness, knowledge and attitudes towards cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) among relatives of people with and without heart disease and their influence in South China.

Design: This is a cross-sectional survey. Logistic regression was used to evaluate the demographic factors associated with CPR training, learning and knowledge.

Setting: The study was conducted in two hospitals, the largest cardiovascular institute and the largest eye care centre in South China.

Participants: Healthy individuals who accompanied their relatives with heart disease to the outpatient department of cardiovascular disease and systemically healthy patients who came for regular ophthalmic examination and had no relatives with heart disease were consecutively recruited for the study. A total of 1644 respondents with heart disease relatives and 813 respondents without heart disease relatives completed the survey.

Results: Thirty three per cent of respondents never heard of CPR and only 11% had received CPR training. Factors associated with a higher rate of CPR training were higher level of education and income (p<0.001). Most respondents stated that CPR training was necessary and would like to learn CPR. However, only one-third considered it beneficial to perform CPR as a layperson. In addition, healthcare respondents (p<0.001), younger (p<0.05) and more educated respondents (p<0.001) earned higher scores on the knowledge of CPR skills. Only 5.3% had perfect scores on a CPR skills test. Notably, respondents with relatives suffering from heart disease had significantly less training experience and CPR knowledge than those without (p<0.001).

Conclusions: Although the attitudes towards learning CPR are very positive, there was a lack of knowledge on this topic among the general public. This study demonstrates an urgent need to boost awareness and training in CPR in South China, especially among people whose relatives have heart disease.