Your gender can impact your chances of survival from cardiac arrest

People are often hesistant to give cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to women in public, putting their lives at greater risk.

When it comes to cardiac arrest in a public setting, hang-ups over gender is putting women’s lives at risk, a recent study has suggested. Men are more likely to receive bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in public locations compared to women, and they are more likely to survive after the life-saving measure, according to preliminary research presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2017.

Using data from the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium, a network of regional clinical centres in the United States and Canada studying out-of-hospital treatments of cardiac arrest and trauma, researchers analysed 19,331 cardiac events at home and in public. They found that overall, bystanders administered CPR in 37% of cardiac events in varied locations.

In addition, 35% of women and 36% of men received CPR in the home, showing no significant difference in the likelihood of one gender getting assistance over the other in this setting. In public settings, 45% of men got assistance compared to 39% of women.

Men were 1.23 times more likely to receive bystander CPR in public settings, and they had 23% increased odds of survival compared to women. “CPR involves pushing on the chest so that could make people less certain whether they can or should do CPR in public on women,” said first author Audrey Blewer. These findings identify a gap in bystander CPR delivery that can help improve future messaging and training to lay responders, health care providers and dispatchers.