Ohio State survey finds half of Americans feel unprepared to help in a life-threatening emergency

Experts stress that basic first aid skills and the confidence to use them when needed saves lives

2024-05-22

(Press-News.org) COLUMBUS, Ohio – If someone collapsed after going into cardiac arrest, would you be prepared to help? For nearly half of Americans, the answer is no.

A new survey from The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center finds many Americans are ill-prepared to help in emergency situations.

The national poll of 1,005 people found only 51% of Americans feel they would be able to perform hands-only CPR in an emergency. When it comes to serious bleeding, 49% said they could step in to help. And 56% of survey participants said they can stop choking.

“Before emergency responders arrive, it’s up to us as the public to initiate care,” said Nicholas Kman, MD, emergency medicine physician at Ohio State Wexner Medical Center and clinical professor of emergency medicine at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. “For every minute that passes, the chance of survival drops, and if they do survive, there’s less chance of a good neurologic outcome.”

Hands-only CPR
According to the American Heart Association, most people who go into cardiac arrest outside of the hospital are at a home or in a public area. Sixty to 80% of them die before reaching the hospital. Bystander CPR can double or triple survival rates.

“We would love the public to learn how to do hands-only CPR and practice the skill of doing CPR every six weeks,” Kman said. “Like with any skill, practice builds confidence. If we don’t practice it, we lose that skill.”

Stop serious bleeding
Accidents around the home with knives and saws, car crashes and other traumas can cause serious bleeding. STOP THE BLEED® training teaches people to how control bleeding until medical help arrives.

“Initiating hemorrhage control is something that you have to do very quickly,” Kman said. “We know from different studies that a patient with major bleeding can die in two to five minutes depending on the location of the bleed.”

Choking first aid
When food or an object is stuck in a person's throat, it can block their ability to breathe, talk or cough. A choking person isn’t getting oxygen to their lungs, which can lead to brain damage. Performing abdominal thrusts or the Heimlich maneuver can force the item out of the body.

“Somebody who's choking will eventually run out of oxygen, collapse and have a cardiac arrest,” Kman said.

Bystander preparation
Training in hands-only CPR, bleeding control and choking first aid is available in-person and online through many local organizations and employers. Certifications can be renewed every two years.

“We're responsible for each other,” Kman said. “When you’re trained in these lifesaving skills, you’ll know how to recognize the signs that someone needs help and buy time until the responders can get there.”

Survey Methodology

This study was conducted on behalf of The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center by SSRS on its Opinion Panel Omnibus platform. The SSRS Opinion Panel Omnibus is a national, twice-per-month, probability-based survey. Data collection was conducted from April 5-7, 2024 among a sample of 1,005 respondents. The survey was conducted via web (n=975) and telephone (n=30) and administered in English. The margin of error for total respondents is +/- 3.4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All SSRS Opinion Panel Omnibus data are weighted to represent the target population of U.S. adults ages 18 or older.

END

[Attachments] See images for this press release:

Ohio State survey finds half of Americans feel unprepared to help in a life-threatening emergency 2

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

HPV testing for cervical cancer may be safe at longer intervals than what current guidelines recommend

2024-05-22

Bottom Line: The risk of detecting cervical precancer eight years after a negative human papillomavirus (HPV) screening was found to be similar to the risk after three years (the commonly recommended screening interval) after a negative cytology screening. Journal in Which the Study was Published: Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Authors: Anna Gottschlich, PhD, MPH, assistant professor at Wayne State School of Medicine and the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute Background: ...

Investigating failure mechanisms of solid electrolyte interphase in silicon particles

2024-05-22

Lithium-ion batteries are widely used in new energy vehicles due to their low self-discharge rate and long cycle life. Currently, the anode material of commercial lithium-ion batteries mainly adopts graphite, with a theoretical capacity of only 372 mAh g-1 — which has gradually failed to meet the increasing demand for energy density. Silicon has been widely studied by virtue of its high theoretical capacity of 4200 mAh g-1. However, silicon produces volume changes of up to 300% during lithiation and delithiation, and the ensuing mechanical degradation and capacity loss hinder applications. To reduce the adverse effects caused by mechanical deformation, silicon structure optimization ...

Legacy of Indigenous stewardship of camas dates back more than 3,500 years, OSU study finds

2024-05-22

An Oregon State University study found evidence that Indigenous groups in the Pacific Northwest were intentionally harvesting edible camas bulbs at optimal stages of the plant’s maturation as far back as 3,500 years ago. The findings contribute to the growing body of research around Traditional Ecological Knowledge and practices, demonstrating the care and specificity with which Indigenous groups have been stewarding and cultivating natural resources for millennia. Camas is an ecological and cultural keystone, meaning it is a species that many other organisms depend on and that features prominently within many cultural practices. “If you think about salmon as being a charismatic ...

Regular fish oil supplement use might boost first time heart disease and stroke risk

2024-05-22

Regular use of fish oil supplements might increase, rather than lessen, the risk of first time heart disease and stroke among those in good cardiovascular health, but may slow progression of existing poor cardiovascular health and lower the risk of death, suggest the results of a large long term study, published in the open access journal BMJ Medicine. Fish oil is a rich source of omega 3 fatty acids, and as such, is recommended as a dietary preventive to ward off the development of cardiovascular disease. But the evidence on how much protection it affords is inconclusive, explain the researchers. To strengthen the evidence base, they set out to estimate the associations ...

Some teen girls clocking up close to 6 smartphone hours/day, Finnish study finds

2024-05-22

Some teenage girls are clocking up close to 6 hours a day on their smartphones, with a significant proportion of them likely addicted to social media, finds research published online in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood. Social media addiction was associated with poorer health and wellbeing, the findings indicate. Recent research has linked increasing levels of anxiety among teen girls with social media use, note the researchers. This may involve several factors, one of which is addiction, with estimated international prevalence ranging from 5% to 31%, they add. Because both anxiety and social media use are more common among girls, the researchers wanted to: measure ...

Pedestrians may be twice as likely to be hit by electric/hybrid cars as petrol/diesel ones

2024-05-22

Pedestrians may be twice as likely to be hit by an electric or hybrid car as those powered by petrol or diesel, finds a study of 2013-17 casualty rates in Great Britain, and published online in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. The risk is greater in urban areas, and governments must take steps to mitigate this safety hazard as they proceed to phase out fossil fuelled vehicles to improve air quality and curb climate change, urge the researchers. Road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death for children and young people, and 1 in 4 road traffic deaths are of pedestrians, they note. Amid ...

Scientists create tailored drug for aggressive breast cancer

2024-05-22

Scientists have used breast cancer cells’ weakness against themselves by linking a tumour-selective antibody with a cell-killing drug to destroy hard-to-treat tumours. The research, published today in Clinical Cancer Research by a team from King’s College London and funded by Breast Cancer Now, marks a new method in cancer treatment. The discovery is particular to triple negative breast cancer, which makes up 15% of all diagnosed breast cancer. This type of breast cancer is typically aggressive, resistant to chemotherapy, has a lower survival rate and is more common in women under 40. Usual treatment involves surgery, chemotherapy ...

Language change harms our ability to communicate and understand

2024-05-22

EMBARGO: WEDNESDAY 22 MAY, 00:01 BST (TUESDAY 21 MAY, 19:01 ET). Changes to the definitions of conceptual words like ‘woke’ and ‘gaslighting’ are harming our ability to communicate and understand our experiences, a Leeds academic argues. In a new paper published in The Philosophical Quarterly journal, an ethicist at the University of Leeds has coined a term for the harm caused when language change leaves us lost for words. Words such as ‘woke’, ‘depression’, ...

Jamestown Colony residents ate dogs with Indigenous ancestry

2024-05-22

Dogs with Indigenous ancestry were eaten during a period of starvation at Jamestown, the first English settlement in North America in the 17th century, according to new research in American Antiquity, published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for American Archaeology. This discovery changes historians’ understanding of how Indigenous communities negotiated their relationship with rising colonial powers during this period. It also suggests that early European colonists depended on local Indigenous communities for their very survival, especially during the initial settlement period. Researchers analysed ancient mitochondrial DNA from archaeological dogs from Jamestown ...

Australian study proves ‘humans are planet’s most frightening predator’

2024-05-22

Australia lacks fearsome large carnivores like lions and wolves, and the relative lack of fear that marsupials like kangaroos and wallabies show to dogs (and other introduced carnivores) has been attributed to a lack of evolutionary experience with large mammalian predators. This, however, overlooks the 50,000-year-long presence in Australia of the world’s most fearsome predator – the human ‘super predator.’ A new study conducted by Western University biology professor Liana Zanette, in collaboration with Calum ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Sexual health symptoms may correlate with poor adherence to adjuvant endocrine therapy in Black women with breast cancer

Black patients with triple-negative breast cancer may be less likely to receive immunotherapy than white patients

Affordable care act may increase access to colon cancer care for underserved groups

UK study shows there is less stigma against LGBTQ people than you might think, but people with mental health problems continue to experience higher levels of stigma