Women ‘less likely to receive CPR in public’

Women are less likely than men to receive CPR if they lose consciousness and their heart stops beating in a public place, according to a new study.

Bystanders may be “afraid of hurting or touching women”, which could prevent them from performing life-saving cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on the street or in other public places, academics have suggested.

Researchers urged people to learn how to perform CPR and administer it “without hesitation” to anyone who needs it, regardless of gender, age or location.

A team of Canadian researchers set out to examine how people who suffer from cardiac arrest, when their heart suddenly stops beating, can help.

They analyzed data from more than 39,000 cardiac arrests that occurred outside of a hospital setting in Canada and the United States between 2005 and 2015.

Nearly a quarter (23%) occurred in public places. The patients were on average 67 years old and 29% of cases were women.

Only about half of patients (54%) received CPR from a bystander.

Researchers found that in public places, women were 28% less likely to receive CPR than men.

In homes and other private settings, gender does not appear to be related to whether or not a person receives CPR.

But researchers found that older people were less likely to receive CPR in private settings, according to the study presented at the European Congress of Emergency Medicine in Barcelona.

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With each 10-year increase in age, men were about 9% less likely to receive CPR during a cardiac arrest. Women were 3% less likely.

Presenting the study, Dr. Sylvie Cossette of the Montreal Heart Institute Research Center in Canada, said: “We conducted this study to try to uncover factors that might discourage people from performing CPR, including including any factors that might deter people from performing CPR on a woman. .

“We would like to study this question in more detail to understand what is behind this difference. This could help us ensure that everyone who needs CPR gets it, regardless of gender, age or location.

Co-author Dr. Alexis Cournoyer, of Sacré-Cœur Hospital in Montreal in Canada, added: “In an emergency, when a person is unconscious and not breathing properly, in addition to calling an ambulance, bystanders should perform CPR. This will give the patient a much better chance of survival and recovery.

“Our study shows that women who experience cardiac arrest are less likely than men to get the CPR they need, especially if the emergency occurs in public.

“We don’t know why this is the case. People may be afraid of hurting or touching a woman, or they may think that a woman is less likely to have a cardiac arrest.