FirstCPR: A pragmatic community organisation-based cluster randomised trial to increase community training and preparedness to respond to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest

Background: Bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and defibrillation improve out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival. However, basic life support (BLS) skills are low. Aim: The FirstCPR cluster randomised controlled trial aimed to test the effectiveness of a community organisation-targeted B...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Sonali Munot, Julie Redfern, Janet E Bray, Blake Angell, Andrew Coggins, Alan Robert Denniss, Garry Jennings, Sarah Khanlari, Pramesh Kovoor, Saurabh Kumar, Kevin Lai, Simone Marschner, Paul M. Middleton, Ian Oppermann, Zoe Rock, Christopher Semsarian, Matthew Vukasovic, Adrian Bauman, Clara K. Chow
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-05-01
Series:Resuscitation Plus
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666520425000864
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Background: Bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and defibrillation improve out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival. However, basic life support (BLS) skills are low. Aim: The FirstCPR cluster randomised controlled trial aimed to test the effectiveness of a community organisation-targeted BLS education and training approach. Methods: Clusters (community organisations with 50+ members) were randomly allocated to intervention (12-month period of opportunities to access BLS education and training) or control (no intervention). Outcomes were assessed via surveys at 12 months and pre-specified analysis involved hierarchical mixed-models. Results: Of 165 randomised clusters (82 intervention), 58% were sports and 42% were social/faith-based. Most of the intervention clusters (74/82) participated in at least one intervention activity (15 in all activities). Factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic and organisation support impacted intervention uptake. Overall 924 members, across 93 clusters (407 from 57 intervention clusters; 517 from 36 control clusters), completed surveys. At 12-months, intervention organisation surveyed members reported higher rates of: being trained and willing to perform CPR on a stranger (primary outcome: 63.8% vs 46.9 %; Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) 2.22, 95% confidence interval (CI):1.50–3.30), confidence to use an automated external defibrillator (AED) (48.4% vs 26.4%; AOR:3.23, 95%CI:2.22–4.71) and willingness to use AEDs on a stranger (73.9% vs 62.9%; AOR:1.84, 95%CI:1.22–2.80). Conclusions: The results should be interpreted cautiously as the survey response rates were very low. However, survey respondents showed desired outcomes and key learnings for future research were gained.
ISSN:2666-5204