Targeting students of nonhealth academic fields for basic life support: they need to know why, what and how to do CPR

Education in basic life support is widely proposed to increase survival and quality of life in out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest. We aimed to assess knowledge, skills, and attitudes regarding acute myocardial infarction and sudden cardiac arrest among university students of all fields of knowledge. Methods: The local Ethical Research Committee approved this cross-sectional study. An electronic survey "KIDS SAVE LIVES BRAZIL" was sent to 58,862 students of 82 disciplines in three universities, aged ≥ 18 years. The survey covered three categories: knowledge, skills, and attitude. Each category was graded between 0 and 10 points (the highest). Results: Among university students, 4,803 undergraduates (8.2 %) answered the survey and were divided into three groups of disciplines: medicine (219, ~21.7 years, 38% male), other-health-care (n=1,058; ~22.9 years; 36% male), and nonhealth-care (n=3,526; ~22.9 years; 35% male). All three groups showed significant differences between them (p<0.001). The nonhealth-care compared with medicine and the other-health-care group showed, respectively, the lowest (p<0.001) median scores (25-75%) in knowledge [4.0 (0.0-9.3), 4.0 (4.0-8.0), and 4.0 (4.0-4.7)], skills [2.4 (1.2-3.3), 6.4 (4.0-8.3), 4.0 (2.4-6.2], and attitude [5.9 (5.9-6.8), 7.3 (5.9-7.3), and 7.3 (5.9-7.3)]. Conclusion: University students have the willingness to help victims suffering from acute myocardial infarction or sudden cardiac arrest. However, nonhealth-care students markedly lack the knowledge and skills to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation and automated external defibrillation. Our findings reveal a stark difference in basic life support competencies between students in health-care-related fields and those in nonhealthy-care fields, emphasizing the need for universal basic life support training.