Analysis of Layperson's Attitude to Perform Mouth-to-Mouth Ventilation in Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation

I-Yin Lin, MD; Tzong-Luen Wang, MD, PhD

Abstract --To understand the attitude of the laypersons in DMAT in performing mouth-to-mouth ventilation during CPR, we designed a prospective study to investigate the likelihood of the laypersons in doing CPR with mouth-to-mouth ventilation and discuss the possible interfering factors involved. We enrolled the specialists and experts of disaster medicine and designed the basic training course of local DMAT since January 2002. We conducted eight shows of basic training course in city and country of Taiwan during one year. Five hundred laypersons who attended in the training course of DMAT were included. Of them, 400 students attended the basic training course of Taiwan Society of Disaster Medicine (Group A) and another 100 the program of other Societies (Group B). There is overall 2.0% (10/500) of the participants that would voluntarily performed CPR such as mouth-to-mouth ventilation without hesitation. For comparison, there was significant difference between group A and group B (2.3% (9/400) vs. 1.0% (1/100), P<0.05). The reasons are lack of legal protection such as Good Samaritan Law constituted 32.4%, wonder in the degree of authorization 28.1%, lack of self-confidence 4.3 % and worry about possible disease transmission 33.5%. Legal protection, education and public media are three bigs in resolving the dilemma.