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Title: What are the barriers for laypeople to be trained in CPR?

Category: EMS

Keywords: cardiac arrest, CPR, bystander (PubMed Search)

Posted: 9/20/2023 by Jenny Guyther, MD (Updated: 7/21/2026)

Prior studies have shown that CPR education is associated with a greater willingness to perform CPR.  This was a review of 23 studies to determine factors that enable and hinder a layperson from learning CPR.
 
Enabling factors included having witnessed someone collapse in the past, awareness of public AEDs, certain occupations and legal requirements for training (i.e. mandatory high school CPR training).
 
Married people were more likely to be trained than those that were not married and people with children younger than 3 years were less likely to take a BLS course.  
 
Barriers that were found to impact people taking CPR classes included lower socioeconomic status and education level, and advanced age and language barriers.  
 
Bottom line: CPR education sessions should target groups with these identified barriers.

References

Ko YC, Hsieh MJ, Schnaubelt S, Matsuyama T, Cheng A, Greif R. Disparities in layperson resuscitation education: A scoping review [published online ahead of print, 2023 Jul 25]. Am J Emerg Med. 2023;72:137-146. doi:10.1016/j.ajem.2023.07.033


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