Asensio-Lafuente, Enrique; Álvarez de la Cadena-Sillas, Jorge; Sánchez-Guevara, Emanuel; Rodríguez-Reyes, Humberto; Urzúa-González, Agustín

ABSTRACT

Introduction: most out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) in patients with cardiovascular disease occur at home or in the vicinity of relatives. Someone in the patient’s entourage should be able to administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). We conducted two surveys to evaluate if CPR learning is suggested to patients and relatives by their physician and to the patients to know their perception in that regard. Material and methods: two surveys were conducted among physicians (cardiologists) and patients (heart disease). All were voluntary and anonymous. Physicians were contacted through an internet survey tool that included both private and public practices, and patients responded in the waiting room of private practices located in private hospitals. Responses were analyzed as categorical variables with the χ² test and, when necessary, Student’s t-test. Results: one hundred and eighty-four cardiologists and 432 patients responded. Among physicians, 95.7% see high-risk OHCA patients, and 97.8% consider «important» or «very important» that someone close to them is able to perform CPR. Physicians think that less than 5% of family members are able to do so, and 59% suggest always, or almost always, the need for someone to learn CPR. Among patients, 95.1% consider «important» that «somebody» knows how to perform CPR in their vicinity, 32.8% think someone close knows how to do so, and in 65.5% of them, someone (friends and family 73.6%, their physician 14.1%) has suggested CPR learning. Conclusions: there is a generalized perception of the importance of CPR learning in the proximity of heart patients, but apparently, few people actually know how to do it. Patients consider that their main sources of information are family and friends.

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