Young teens match adults on CPR performance: study
Children as young as 13 can perform CPR as well as adults, according to British researchers who suggest the lessons start in elementary school.
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is a first aid procedure for an unconscious person whose breathing and/or pulse have stopped. The technique aims to protect the heart and brain until the heart can resume pumping in a normal rhythm.
Bystander CPR is known to more than double the chance of survival in sudden cardiac arrest.
In the last few years, studies have suggested that chest compressions are the most important part of CPR, although they are physically demanding to perform.
In several European countries, the resuscitation skills are taught in school. In the United Kingdom, chest compressions are introduced to students at age 11.
Adult success rate
To determinewhatage children can effectively provide chest compressions, Michael Colquhoun of Cardiff University in Wales and his colleagues looked at how well 157 children aged in three groups— ages nine to 10, 11 to 12, and 13 to 14— provided compressions.
The children all received a basic life support lesson lasting 20 minutes. They were then tested to see whether they could compress an adult-sized manikin's chest to the recommended depth of 38 to 51 millimetres for three minutes.
About 45 per cent of those aged 13 to 14 gave deep enough compressions—a success rate similar to that archived byadults in earlier studies, the researchers reported in Friday's online issue of British Medical Journal.
None of the youngest students and only 19 per cent of 11- to 12-year-olds were strong enough to compress the chest adequately, the team found.
Younger students learned technique
In contrast, no relationship was found between average compression rate and age, sex, weight and height, or between age and correct hand position.
"Although they were not able to compress the chest sufficiently, they learned the methods of performing chest compression as well as the older children," the study's authors concluded.
"Teaching younger children provides knowledge for when they are adequately developed."
Younger children may also advise an adult on the technique, perform it better on an actual person compared with a model, and possibly gain and retain the skill better as the lessons are revised in higher grades, the researchers said.
The results may notreflect real life rescue conditions, where resistance from the victim may differ from the manikin, emotion may get in the way, compressions are given for more than three minutes, and compressions are cycled with rescue breaths, the team acknowledged.