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Volume 27, Issue 135, May 2023

Knowledge and attitude toward cardiopulmonary resuscitation among medical students in Saudi Arabia

Ahmed Nawi Alshammari¹, Shoug Saleh Alnasyan², Ammar Saud Alharbi³, Hajar Saleh Algarni⁴, Masooma Abduljalil Abuidrees⁵, Reema Saleh Alzahrani⁶, Shajn Suliman Alsaadi⁴, Shujaa Masoud Almutairi², Khames T Alzahrani⁷

¹Assistant Professor, College of Medicine, Hail University, Hail, Saudi Arabia
²Medical Student, College of Medicine, Qassim University, Buraydah, Saudi Arabia
³Medical Student, College of Medicine, Hail University, Hail, Saudi Arabia
⁴Medical Student, College of Medicine, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia
⁵General Practitioner, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China
⁶Medical Student, College of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
⁷King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre, Riyadh BDS, PGD Endo from Stanford University, Saudi Board of Endodontic, Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

Background: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is used to sustain blood flow and oxygenation in patients experiencing cardiac arrest. It involves performing several cycles of chest compressions and artificial respiration. This study aimed to assess the knowledge and attitudes toward CPR among medical students in Saudi Arabia. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted using an online questionnaire at a single time point. The target sample consisted of medical students in Saudi Arabia. Data were collected and analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Results: 1,692 people took part in the survey; the majority of them (80.1%) were between the ages of 20 and 25, with 57.8 percent of women and 42.2 percent of males. Only 10.9 percent of individuals reported having a poor knowledge score, whereas the majority of participants (54 percent) reported having a moderate knowledge-score. Most participants (95.3%) had positive-attitudes toward-CPR and only 4.7% had negative attitudes. In total, 67.1% participants had poor practice scores and 32.9% had good practice scores. There was a significant-association between knowledge-scores of participants and age (p=0.001) and academic year (p=0.001). There was also a significant association between attitude scores and marital status (P=0.046) and academic year (p=0.001). Conclusion: The results of our paper showed that medical students had good knowledge and positive attitudes toward CPR but poor practice. In general, our results are better than those of previous studies conducted in Saudi-Arabia. Additionally, they are better than other reported figures worldwide.

Keywords: Cardiopulmonary, Saudi Arabia, medical students