The impact of Kids Save Lives program on Knowledge, skills and attitude of students. Preliminary results from 2 years of implementation
Sudden cardiac death is one of the main issues worldwide, with more than 700.000 deaths annually. It is strongly believed that the implementation of “Kids Save Lives” project in schools can change this situation. The World Health Organization endorsed the “Kids Save Lives” project in 2015 in order to reduce mortality, while in countries, where children were taught cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in schools, have higher rates of bystander CPR and higher survival rates. In a lot of countries this project is a suggestion from Ministry of Education to schools.
To evaluate the level of theoretical knowledge, willingness to perform Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and active skills of Greek secondary school students on the subject of Basic life Support before and after a “Kids Save Lives” program.
Material – Method: Data collection took place on the academic periods of 2017–2018 and 2018–2019 and was performed in secondary schools. A total of 3421 students (51,9% female, mean age 14.2 years) participated on the “Kids save Lives” program according to the European Resuscitation Council (ERC) and World Health Organization (WHO) statement. A 12-question questionnaire was answered by the students before and after the “kid saves lives” program, while practical skills were evaluated on manikins by experienced ERC Basic Life Support (BLS) Instructors.
The training improves significantly the theoretical knowledge regarding Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), with the percentage of correct answers being 49.5% and 82,41%,before and after the course respectively (p<0.001). The participants willingness to perform bystander CPR significantly increased after the completion of the course (93,1% before to 97,3% after, p<0.001). Almost all of the participants (98.9%) could recognize the correct position near the victim and 91% performed chin lift maneuver and recognized cardiac arrest. More than 90% of the students performed chest compressions with the correct rate and placing their hands on the center of the chest (90,1% and 93.4%, respectively), whereas only 76.4% of the participants achieved the desired compression depth of 5 to 6 cm.
The overall results strongly depict the benefits of “Kids Save Lives” program by improving the theoretical knowledge, the practical skills and the attitude of students towards CPR and indicate the necessity of implementation in a greater scale nationwide.
Type of funding source: None