Knowledge and attitudes towards cardiopulmonary resuscitation and defibrillation amongst Asian primary health care physicians

OBJECTIVE: To assess the knowledge and attitudes of local primary health care physicians in relation to cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and defibrillation. METHODS: We conducted a survey on general practitioners in Singapore by using a self-administered questionnaire that comprised 29 questions. RESULTS: The response rate was 80%, with 60 of 75 physicians completing the questionnaire. The average age of the respondents was 52 years. Sixty percent of them reported that they knew how to operate an automated external defibrillator (AED), and 38% had attended AED training. Only 36% were willing to perform mouth-to-mouth ventilation during CPR, and 53% preferred chest compression-only resuscitation (CCR) to standard CPR. We found those aged <50 years were more likely to be trained in basic cardiac life support (BCLS) (P < 0.001) and advanced cardiac life support (P = 0.005) or to have ever attended to a patient with cardiac arrest (P = 0.007). Female physicians tended to agree that all clinics should have AEDs (P = 0.005) and support legislation to make AEDs compulsory in clinics (P < 0.001). We also found that a large proportion of physicians who were trained in BCLS (P = 0.006) were willing to perform mouth-to-mouth ventilation. CONCLUSION: Most local primary care physicians realize the importance of defibrillation, and the majority prefer CCR to standard CPR.