According to a survey of the public published in Plos One, 61% of respondents had negative attitudes toward performing potentially-lifesaving bystander CPR and 9.7% would refuse to perform BCPR at all, in the face of exposure or transmission of an emerging infectious disease outbreak, such as COVID-19.
Researchers surveyed 1,347 eligible respondents. According to responses:
- 61% (822) had negative attitudes toward performing BCPR
- 9.7% of the respondents would absolutely refuse to perform BCPR
- Those who were more likely to refuse providing BCPR absolutely were physicians (14.4%), respondents not having CPR knowledge (16.5%), and those with a negative attitude toward BCPR (14.7%)
- 16.9% would perform BCPR directly despite the outbreak
- Of the 61% of respondents who had negative attitudes toward performing BCPR:
- Approximately 9.9% would perform BCPR if they were instructed
- 23.5% would perform BCPR if they wore facemasks
- 40.1% would perform BCPR if they were to perform hands-only CPR.
According to results, healthcare providers (HCPs) and those with pre-existing CPR training had fewer negative attitudes towards BCPR and showed more positive behaviors toward BCPR. Specifically, the proportion of HCPs with a negative attitude (40.7%) was significantly lower than that of laypersons (70.9%) and physicians (74.4%).
