Bystanders are less likely to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on women than on men, especially if the emergency takes place in a public area, according to research presented today (Monday) at the European Congress of Emergency Medicine. The study also shows that in private settings older people , especially older men, are less likely to receive CPR.
Researchers say CPR saves lives and urge people to learn how to perform CPR and apply it without hesitation to anyone who needs it, regardless of gender, age or location.
The research was presented by Dr. Sylvie Cossette, a PhD nurse researcher at the Montreal Heart Institute research centre, Canada. She conducted the research with Dr. Alexis Cournoyer, an emergency physician and researcher at the Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur in Montréal, Canada.
Dr Cournoyer said: “In an emergency, when someone 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.”
Dr. Cossette added: "We conducted this study to try to uncover factors that might deter people from performing CPR, including any factors that might deter people from performing CPR on a woman."
The researchers used data from registries of cardiac arrests that occurred outside of hospitals in Canada and the US between 2005 and 2015, including a total of 39,391 patients with an average age of 67 years. They looked at whether or not a bystander performed CPR, where the emergency occurred, and the age and sex of the patient.
They found that only about half of the patients received bystander CPR (54%). Overall, women were slightly less likely to receive CPR (52% of women compared to 55% of men).
However, when the researchers looked only at cardiac arrests that occurred in a public place, such as the street, the difference was greater (61% of women compared to 68% of men). These lower rates of public CPR were found in women regardless of their age.
When researchers looked at cardiac arrests that occurred in a private setting, such as a home, the data indicated that with each ten-year increase in age, men were about 9% less likely to receive CPR during a cardiac arrest. . For women who suffered cardiac arrest in a private setting, the odds of receiving CPR were about 3% lower with each ten-year increase in age.
Dr Cournoyer said: “Our study shows that women who suffer cardiac arrest are less likely to receive the CPR they need compared to men, especially if the emergency occurs in public. We don’t know why this is so. It could be that people are worried about hurting or touching women, or that they think a woman is less likely to go into cardiac arrest. "We wondered if this imbalance would be even worse in younger women, because viewers may worry even more about non-consensual physical contact, but that was not the case."
Dr Cossette said: “We would like to study this issue in more detail to understand what is behind the difference. “This could help us ensure that anyone who needs CPR receives it, regardless of gender, age or location.”
Professor Youri Yordanov from the emergency department of St Antoine Hospital (APHP Paris), France, is chair of the EUSEM 2023 abstract committee and was not involved in the research. He said: “CPR saves lives, but unfortunately not everyone who suffers a cardiac arrest will receive the CPR they need. This study gives us some clues as to why this is so. Cardiac arrest can occur at any time and anywhere, so we should all learn CPR and be willing to perform it without hesitation.”
