Knowledge of basic life support among the students of Jazan University, Saudi Arabia: Is it adequate to save a life?

Peer review under responsibility of Alexandria University Faculty of Medicine.

Available online 28 June 2018

Figures & data

Table 1 Mean of the correct responses attempted by the students of various colleges/departments of Jazan University, against each question of BLS knowledge.

Categories	Participants n (%)	Mean (SD)	Minimum	Maximum	ANOVA (p)^a
Gender
Male	303 (84.2)	7.83 (3.18)	0	13	0.016
Female	57 (15.8)	7.84 (2.49)	4	12
Colleges of Jazan University
Pharmacy	13 (3.6)	9.92 (3.43)	2	13	0.0001
Emergency Medical Services	10 (2.8)	11.50 (2.42)	5	13
Applied Medical Sciences	19 (5.3)	6.11 (3.67)	1	13
Medicine	15 (4.2)	10.80 (1.61)	7	12
Public Health &Tropical Medicine	8 (2.2)	6.88 (3.36)	2	13
Baish Community College	15 (4.2)	12.53 (1.06)	10	13
Dentistry	4 (1.1)	8.50 (3.51)	5	12
Education	17 (4.7)	7.29 (2.26)	3	10
Business Administration	15 (4.2)	9.73 (1.71)	7	12
Art and Literature	19 (5.3)	6.53 (2.22)	2	10
Preparatory	4 (1.1)	7.75 (2.06)	5	10
Computer science	38 (10.6)	7.37 (3.16)	0	12
Engineering	49 (13.6)	8.04 (2.50)	2	13
Science	27 (7.5)	5.78 (2.65)	2	13
Nursing	24 (6.7)	6.58 (2.08)	4	11
Respiratory Therapy (Female)	33 (9.2)	8.76 (2.39)	4	12
Respiratory Therapy (Male)	24 (6.7)	5.54 (2.30)	1	11
Miscellaneous Colleges	26 (7.2)	7.08 (2.70)	1	13
Previous CPR Training
Yes	70 (19.4)	10.41 (2.29)	4	13	0.0001
No	188 (52.3)	7.36 (2.87)	1	13
Not Answered	102 (28.3)	6.92 (3.00)	0	13
Total	360 (1 0 0)	7.83 (3.08)	0	13

Note: CPR-Cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

a The variation score in different categories was analyzed by ANOVA test using p-value ≤0.05 as a level of significance.

Table 2 Analysis of correct responses of BLS knowledge, awareness, and attitude based on questionnaire from male and female students (n = 360).

Items	Total (%)	Male n (%)	Female n (%)	χ^2	p-value^a
1	268 (74.4)	238 (78.5)	30 (52.6)	16.94	0.001
2	225 (62.5)	178 (58.7)	47 (82.5)	11.51	0.001
3	298 (82.8)	244 (80.5)	54 (94.7)	6.79	0.009
4	101 (28.1)	95 (31.4)	6 (10.5)	10.31	0.001
5	219 (60.8)	188 (62.0)	31 (54.4)	1.18	0.277
6	178 (49.4)	143 (47.2)	35 (61.4)	3.87	0.049
7	189 (52.5)	158 (52.1)	31 (54.4)	0.097	0.756
8	228 (63.3)	187 (61.7)	41 (71.9)	2.15	0.142
9	93 (25.8)	66 (21.8)	27 (47.4)	16.39	0.001
10	208 (57.8)	173 (57.1)	35 (61.4)	0.36	0.546
11	168 (46.7)	164 (54.1)	4 (7.0)	42.78	0.001
12	216 (60.0)	187 (61.7)	29 (50.9)	2.35	0.125
13	204 (56.7)	171 (56.4)	33 (57.9)	0.042	0.838
14	223 (61.9)	179 (59.1)	44 (77.2)	6.68	0.010

a Chi-square test (χ²) was used for the statistical analysis and p-value ≤0.05 was considered as significant.

Fig. 1 The percentage distribution of the students based on their correct responses on all the items of the survey questionnaire used in this study.

Table 3 Comparative table of responses regarding the knowledge of BLS(CPR) between the participants of Group A [BLS(CPR) related course is a part of their curriculum)] vs. Group B [BLS(CPR) related course is not a part of their curriculum)].

	Correct Response
Items	Group A^* (N = 60)	Group B^** (N = 104)
	n (%)	n (%)	χ^2	p-value
What is the emergency medical service dial number?	47 (78.3)	89 (85.6)	1.41	0.235
What will be the next step if you find a patient, who is unresponsive?	48 (80.0)	63 (60.6)	6.56	0.010
Is it necessary to take spinal movement precautions in unconscious trauma patients?	56 (93.3)	95 (91.3)	0.21	0.650
How to open the airway in trauma or injured patients?	18 (30.0)	21 (20.2)	2.02	0.155
If a person is unconscious having weak pulse but he is not breathing, what shall we do?	39 (65.0)	69 (66.3)	0.031	0.861
How may one person can help in resuscitation of a patient who is unresponsive if the person doesn’t know mouth to mouth ventilation or there is any limitation to mouth to mouth ventilations?	41 (68.3)	43 (41.3)	11.09	0.001
If we need to do the chest compression for resuscitating an unconscious patient, what will be the location for chest compressions?	41 (68.3)	49 (47.1)	6.92	0.009
While doing resuscitation what will be the ratio of chest compression and ventilation in adults and children?	38 (63.3)	66 (63.5)	0.0001	0.987

^#Chi-square test (χ²) was used for the statistical analysis and p-value ≤0.05 was considered as significant.

* Group A colleges have BLS/CPR and first-aid course as an essential part of their curriculum.

** Group B colleges don’t have any BLS/CPR related course(s) in their curriculum.