In the United States, more than 350,000 Americans have a sudden cardiac arrest outside a hospital every year, according to AHA statistics. About one in five occur in public settings such as airports, restaurants and shopping centers.
Research shows performing CPR and quickly using an AED increases the chances of survival for people having a cardiac arrest.
Graham Nichol, M.D., a longtime emergency medicine physician in Seattle, said government agencies, nonprofits and community organizations, such as state health departments, churches, and immigrant advocacy groups, should work together to start CPR training and AED educational programs in neighborhoods where people are less likely to survive cardiac arrest.
Campaigns that consider cultural, educational and income characteristics of such communities have the potential to “improve overall health,” said Nichol, a professor of medicine at the University of Washington who was not involved in the new study.
Abella said the next step is to delve deeper into the data they’ve collected to understand why Latinos are less likely to know what an AED is — and who is qualified to use it. Only 19 percent of Latinos said anybody could use an AED, compared with 30 percent of whites, 22 percent of blacks and 22 percent of Asians.
“They’re not just for medically trained providers,” said Abella. “They’re for anybody who happens upon a cardiac arrest.”
