National population based survey on the prevalence of first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation and automated external defibrillator skills in Singapore

AimThis study aimed to assess knowledge, attitudes and practices among Singapore residents towards life-saving skills and providing emergency assistance in the community using a population representative sample.MethodsA population based, random sample of 7840 household addresses were selected from a validated national sampling frame. Respondents were interviewed using face-to-face interview method. One adult aged between 18 and 69 years within each household was randomly selected using the “next birthday” method.ResultsThe response rate achieved was 65.2% with 4192 respondents. The distribution of age, gender and ethnic group were similar to the Singapore resident population for 2009. A high proportion of participants believed that adults should be trained in first aid (89.1%) and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) (82.6%) while a lower proportion (57.2%) believed this for automated external defibrillator (AED). Proportion who had ever been trained in first aid was 34.3%, CPR was 31.4% and AED was 10.7%. In an emergency, respondents were most willing to use life-saving skills on family members or relatives (87.6%), followed by friends and colleagues (80.7%) and complete strangers (61.3%). Common barriers to applying life-saving skills were lack of knowledge (36%), fear of doing harm (22.1%) and lack of confidence (15.3%). Respondents who were more likely to have current life-saving certification were younger employed Malay male (p < 0.05).ConclusionThis study found that although a high proportion of respondents believed that adults should be trained in first aid, CPR and AED, the proportion who had ever been trained in these skills are much lower.