Knowledge and skills of lay participants training with basic life support program in case of cardiac arrest

Background: Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is an important cause that leads to hospital admission and death. Improving lay people's knowledge and skills in basic life support (BLS) may lead to reduced death associated with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. “BLS NU KKU” is a BLS training program developed from up-to-date literature as a smartphone application used to train lay people in the community. 

Objective: To evaluate BLS-related knowledge and skills of participants before and after BLS training. 

Materials and Methods: A one group pretest-posttest design was used to implement the present study in Khon Kaen, Thailand. Participants were 350 individuals age 18 and older. An 8-hour BLS training session was offered to 10 groups of 35 participants over the period of 10 months between November 2018 and August 2019. Self-administered questionnaires were used to assess BLS knowledge and Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) skills. 

Results: The mean score for BLS-related knowledge significantly increased after the BLS training (mean = 15.05, SD = 2.51) compared to the scores before the training (mean = 10.47, SD = 3.43) (p<0.05). BLS skills improved from 0% to 100% (p<0.001) will all skills rated with mostly “excellent” and “good”. Satisfaction with the training program was also rated mostly with “excellent” and “good”. 

Conclusion: The BLS training program effectively improved participants' knowledge and skills for basic life support. This program should be disseminated to train lay people in other settings.