Population awareness and attitude towards cardiopulmonary resuscitation in Makkah, Saudi Arabia - A cross sectional study

Background: The abrupt loss of heart function or cardiac arrest is considered emergency conditions that result in loss of blood flow from the failure of the heart to pump effectively. If instant help is not provided directly to victims who suffer from cardiac arrest, sudden death can occur. Therefore, it is essential to provide immediate CPR. In the holy city Makkah, a huge number of pilgrims come annually from different parts of the world; any accident can occur that indicates an immediate CPR to save life and decrease mortality. Our study is the first to be done in Makkah. Objective: Our main aim was to assess the knowledge and attitude of general population in Makkah toward CPR. Method: This is a cross-sectional study from November 2020 to January 2021 was performed using an online survey. Results: Total of 101 participants, around 50.5% attended CPR preparation course. Around 42.6% witnessed a real situation of CPR, while only 9.9% were able to apply CPR by themselves. Most of the study participants have inadequate knowledge about CPR including only 18.8% knew the correct number of chest compressions per minutes, 36.6% knew the correct depth of chest compression, 35.6% knew the correct rate of breath to chest compression for adult victim and only 19.8% knew the correct duration for one cycle of CPR. Conclusion: We revealed that there is an inadequate knowledge among general population regarding CPR in Makkah. Therefore, more educational intervention should be applied.