Are they trained? Prevalence, motivations and barriers to CPR training among cohabitants of patients with a coronary disease

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest occurs most often at home and often in the presence of family members of the patient who witness the event. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training of the next of kin of at-risk patients is thus potentially beneficial. The aim of our study was to document the prevalence of appropriate training among cardiac patients' cohabitants, as well as the motivations or obstacles to seeking training. 153 cohabitants of 127 patients who were hospitalized 1 year prior for confirmed coronary disease in a cardiology department (Paris, France) were interviewed using a structured questionnaire between October 2013 and March 2014. 38 % of interrogated cohabitants had received CPR training, and in two-thirds of the cases, their training was undertaken prior to the onset of the patient's heart disease. The training received was often a single instruction session. Half took place more than 5 years prior to the interview. For two-thirds of interrogated families, the reasons they sought training were related to professional or military duties. Training undertaken solely due to cohabitation with a patient affected by coronary disease represented only 3.5 % of the trained respondents. A lack of information regarding existing training programs and a lack of concrete propositions were given as the main barriers to seeking training. The families of patients who are at-risk for cardiac arrests that were interrogated in our study are inadequately trained in CPR. The creation of dedicated training programs at cardiac rehabilitation services for patients' next of kin or the use of alternative methods such as self-instruction kits could potentially remedy this situation.