Men more likely to receive CPR in public than women

New York: If someone experiences a sudden cardiac arrest in public, gender may play a big role in getting bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Researchers say that men are more likely to receive bystander CPR than women.

"The key take away from these data is that we need to find better and more effective ways to educate the general public on the importance of providing bystander CPR and the importance of being comfortable delivering it regardless of the factors like gender, age or even the weight of the person in need," said study co-author Benjamin Abella, professor at the University of Pennsylvania in the US.

For the study, presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2017, researchers evaluated 19,331 cardiac events using data from the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium, a network of regional clinical centres in the US and Canada which study out-of-hospital treatments of cardiac arrest and trauma.

The researchers found that 45 per cent of men received bystander CPR in public compared to 39 per cent of women. 

While bystander CPR is still relatively rare, occurring in only about 37 per cent of all cardiac events that happen in public locations, men were 1.23 times more likely to receive it, the researchers said.

Men were also found to be nearly two times more likely to survive a cardiac event after bystander CPR and they had 23 per cent increased odds of survival without it, compared to women.

In addition to bystander CPR rates in public locations, the team also looked at possible disparities of in-home CPR. 

But there was no significant difference based on gender -- 35 per cent of women and 36 per cent of men received CPR at home.