Abstract Body: Introduction: Bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillator (AED) use are interventions that can increase survival rates of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA). However, willingness and comfort levels of such interventions amongst laypersons vary greatly, especially in racial and ethnic minoritized groups including African Americans and Hispanics.
Research Question: To assess the comfort level and perceived barriers of participants before and after community-based CPR and AED education.
Methods: We conducted a family-centered quasi-experimental study in primarily Black and Hispanic churches around the Will and Dupage counties of Illinois. Informed consent was obtained. Participants watched an instructor-facilitated CPR and AED 10-minute educational video. Comfort levels pre- and post-training were assessed on a scale of 1 (least confident) to 5 (extremely confident) and reported as percentages. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to assess perceived barriers to performing CPR.
Results: Out of 27 participants who completed training assessment, majority were females 55.6% (n=15), with 44.4% (n=12) males; 66.7% (n=18) African Americans, and 33.3% (n=9) Hispanic or Latino. 70.4% (n=19) of the participants spoke English while 29.6% (n=8) spoke Spanish. Before training, 73% (n=19) and 81% (n=21) of participants were not confident in administering CPR or using AED respectively on someone in cardiac arrest. After training, confidence level increased to 100% for both CPR and AED use. Perceived barriers to CPR prior to training included participants not knowing how to perform CPR correctly (65%), concern that they may further harm someone (4%), concerns about potential legal liability (4%), and loss of recall on how to perform CPR (4%), while 23% had no barrier.
Conclusion: Comfort levels of individuals performing CPR and AED use increased significantly after community-based CPR and AED education. Data collection is ongoing to assess comfort level with a larger number of participants. Implementing community-based CPR training in churches allows for community-oriented CPR trainings and may help improve bystander comfort level and willingness to perform CPR during OHCA, especially in minoritized communities.