Sex differences in anxiety and hesitation toward bystander CPR and AED

Abstract

Women who suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrest receive cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillator (AED) less frequently than that of men. Understanding the public perception on the necessity of the occurrence of life-saving disparities for fair intervention application to individuals with injuries and sickness is needed. The participants were undergraduate students of the university. Anxiety and irritability towards bystander CPR and AED operations were investigated. The participants of the analysis were 368 individuals (153 men and 215 women), of which 80.4% of men and 95.8% of women had anxiety about life-saving procedures. Regarding AED operation, 90 (58.8%) men and 74 (34.4%) women hesitated on removing clothing from a woman with injury or sickness. The reasons on women with injury and illness were less likely to be suitable with AEDs involved anxiety about life-saving procedures, litigation issues, and posting and spreading on social networking sites (SNS). Particularly, if men intervened with women with wounds, the main limitations were the risk of the act developing into a lawsuit and gaze of others, namely SNS. Bystander anxiety towards life-saving procedures was found to be strongly expressed by women. It also became evident that early recognition of cardiac arrest was not performed for patients with injuries 20–30% of the time. Training specifically for women with wounds and sickness may reduce sex differences in bystander CPR and AED application.