Protocol for a cohort study of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the rate and incidence of bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest

BACKGROUND: Survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is dependent on early recognition, early cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and early defibrillation. The purpose of CPR is to maintain some blood flow until the arrival of the emergency medical services (EMS). Our concern is that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative effect on the number of patients who get CPR before EMS arrival. The aim of this study is to compare the incidence of bystander CPR during the pandemic with data from before the pandemic. METHODS: The protocol is for a retrospective cohort study where data from existing registries will be used. All participating registries will share aggregated data from 2017 to 2020, and the study team will compare the results from 2020 to results from 2017 to 2019. Due to the General Data Protection Regulation, each participating registry will check for completeness and plausibility, and perform all aggregation of data locally. In the following analysis different registries will be considered as random samples and analysed by means of a generalized linear mixed effects model with Poisson distribution for the outcome, the population covered as offsets, and different registries as random factors. DISCUSSION: This study does not present the prospect of direct benefit to the patient, but does provide an opportunity to gain a better understanding of the epidemiology of bystander CPR for OHCA patients during a pandemic. By comparing data during the pandemic with already collected information in established registries we believe we can gain valuable information about changes in public response to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13049-021-00890-6.