People living in predominately Hispanic neighborhoods are less likely to receive CPR from a bystander following an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest compared to people living in non-Hispanic neighborhoods, researchers from Penn Medicine and the Duke University of School of Medicine reported in the journal Circulation. This same group also had a lower likelihood of survival.
Most previous studies, including ones led by Penn, have concentrated on gender, age, and residents of predominantly black neighborhoods, who are also less likely to receive CPR from bystanders. However, few have been conducted around CPR delivery in the Hispanic population, despite it being the fastest-growing community in the United States.
“This is an underrecognized disparity that deserves more attention and resources if we’re going to better understand what’s driving it,” says senior author Benjamin S. Abella, a professor of emergency medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine and director of the Center for Resuscitation Science. “One of the first steps is to focus on ways to implement programs that help more people from the Hispanic community get CPR trained and ultimately save more lives.”
Read more at Penn Medicine News.
