Elsevier

Resuscitation

Volume 36, Issue 1, January 1998, Pages 59-64
Resuscitation

Impact of a child first aid wall calendar on lay people's skills and knowledge of infant CPR

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0300-9572(97)00096-8Get rights and content

Abstract

The aim of the study was to evaluate whether mass-mailing of a 12-month wall calendar which focused on child and infant safety and first aid treatment had any educational effect on lay people. The calendar included algorithms for removal of a foreign body from the airways and infant and child CPR. The knowledge and skills in these procedures were tested in two groups using a previously validated check-list before and after the introduction of the calendar. One group received the calendar by mass mailing, free-of-charge. Six months after calendar distribution the mean result for 52 persons tested was 18% correct, not different from the 19% correct for 65 persons tested before calendar distribution. The other group received the calendar as part of an internal company campaign focusing on infant and child safety with a possibility for borrowing a baby manikin, but with no instruction involved. In this group the mean result improved significantly from 27% precalendar (n=57) to 47% (n=125) (P<0.001) 1 week after calendar distribution with a significant reduction to 38% (n=52) (P=0.004) 6 months later, still significantly better than precalendar (P=0.004). Test persons younger than 50 years old scored better than those older than 50 years (39 vs. 22%, P<0.001), and the test persons scored better if they had been tested previously (44 vs. 35%, P=0.04) or had practised with a baby manikin (45 vs. 35%, P=0.02). Whether the test persons had children 0–8 years old or not, did not affect the results. In conclusion the calendar had no educational effect when distributed by mail, but a safety campaign which included distribution of the calendar and a possibility to borrow a manikin had a positive influence on the first aid skills and knowledge of lay people. Mass mailing of CPR or other first aid material free-of-charge does not seem to further the goal of increasing the rate and proficiency of bystander interventions to save lives.

Introduction

A variety of educational tools have been used in an effort to teach lay people cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. In addition to the traditional instructor led courses, self-instruction material has recently been developed including multimedia, videos and manikins marketed for home use 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. The initial evaluation of some home-instruction programs has been promising [2].

In Norway a 12-month wall calendar which focused on child and infant safety and first aid treatment was recently developed (Laerdal, Stavanger, Norway). The content was approved by the Norwegian Resuscitation Council and was in agreement with the 1996 manual of the Norwegian First Aid Council [7]. Every month the calendar introduced a specific topic such as burns, foreign bodies in the airways, CPR etc (example Fig. 1, translated version).

We were interested in whether mass mailing of the calendar had any effect on the knowledge and skills of lay people in infant CPR and whether practise with a baby manikin at the time of calendar distribution influenced the results.

Section snippets

Materials and methods

The Norwegian Child Safety Calendar was distributed by mail free-of-charge to all members of the Norwegian Air Ambulance (NLA) in the autumn of 1995, without any additional educational measures. NLA is a non-governmental non-profit organization whose membership comprises 400 000 households or about 20% of the Norwegian population. NLA initiated the air ambulance system in Norway, and its main purpose is to improve out-of-hospital emergency care. As a consequence of this NLA also holds first aid

Results

Of the 436 subjects 421 were tested. Fourteen persons did not show up, and one was not tested as she had guessed why she was called and had reread the calendar. The median age (range) for the test persons was 39 (27–72) years old in the insurance company and 55 (18–82) years old in the NLA group, significantly higher than in the insurance company (P<0.001).

The test results for the employees of the insurance company were significantly better 1 week after the introduction of the calendar than

Discussion

The present wall calendar with instructions on how to handle child emergencies is to our knowledge a novel attempt to increase lay people's CPR knowledge and skills. In the present study the distribution of the calendar free-of-charge by mail to members of a voluntary emergency medicine organization had no effect on the competence in handling choking and cardiac arrest in infants. The distribution in an insurance company as part of an internal child safety campaign with a possibility for

Acknowledgements

The study was supported by the Norwegian Air Ambulance and the Laerdal Foundation for acute medicine. Mitch Loeb, statistician at the Institute of Public Health, helped us with the statistics, and the study would have been impossible without the enthusiastic help from Anne Torp and Herbjørg Overen (insurance company), Knut Ulvesøen (NLA) and Harald Eikeland at Laerdal Medical. Jon Thowsen, Anders Knutsen and NLA CPR instructors helped us with the test performance.

References (14)

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (8)

  • Improving the cost-effectiveness of laypersons’ paediatric basic life support skills training: A randomised non-inferiority study

    2019, Resuscitation
    Citation Excerpt :

    Trained laypersons are more likely than untrained laypersons to initiate bystander resuscitation attempts.6–8 For laypersons to provide effective bystander PBLS and FBAOM, skills need to be learned in hands-on training courses.9,10 Resuscitation skills have shown to decay in as little as three months.9

  • Impact of a self-instruction CPR kit on 7th graders' and adults' skills and CPR performance

    2008, Resuscitation
    Citation Excerpt :

    It has been a goal to increase this number by developing innovative CPR courses. There are reports on courses led by traditional instructors, adult family members and self-instruction based on take home manikins, video, DVD and calendars.9–23 In an attempt to train more lay-rescuers, the Norwegian Air Ambulance Foundation (SNLA) offered all 7th graders (12 years old) in Norway their own personal self-instruction kit (MiniAnne) developed by Laerdal Medical (Stavanger, Norway).

  • Motivation and adult learning: A survey among hospital personnel attending a CPR course

    2008, Resuscitation
    Citation Excerpt :

    An introduction or repetition of what to learn was expected to increase the self-efficacy to perform well at the course. Sunde and co-workers24 found that mass-distribution of a wall-calendar focusing on CPR skills to laypersons before testing them in CPR skills did not produce significant outcome results. Possible explanations could be lack of motivation due to the fact that the receivers had not requested the material, had not paid for it or did not know they would be tested.24

  • The Knowledge of and Attitudes Toward First Aid and Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Among Parents

    2018, Journal of Pediatric Nursing
    Citation Excerpt :

    However, only a few studies have investigated first aid knowledge among the general population (Conrad & Beattie, 1996). ( Eichelberger, Gotschall, Feely, Harstad, & Bowman, 1990)These studies concluded that educational interventions are necessary to improve knowledge of the practice of first aid (Conrad & Beattie, 1996; Eichelberger et al., 1990), (Langley & Silva, 1986; Singer, Gulla, Thode, & Cronin, 2004; Sunde, Wik, Naess, & Steen, 1998; Thein, Lee, & Bun, 2005; Wei et al., 2013), and should be undertaken regularly to ensure that the knowledge and confidence is maintained (Howard & Houghton, 2012). This paper describes the results of a study, the main objective of which was to determine the level of knowledge of first aid (FA) and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) among the parents of children who accessed the Pediatric Emergency Department of a tertiary hospital of the Community of Madrid and to identify what factors influenced this knowledge.

View all citing articles on Scopus
View full text