title: Cardiac arrest in Greek primary health care and willingness of general practitioners to use automatic external defibrillator.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to calculate the incidence of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) in primary health care in Greece and assess general practitioners' (GPs) willingness towards the use of automatic external defibrillator (AED).
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a survey in GPs working in both private and public sectors. The survey consisted of 32 questions and was distributed via email in 180 randomly selected GPs. To estimate OHCA incidence, data concerning the number of examined patients and the number of cardiac arrests were used.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Based on the population of our study, the incidence of OHCA in primary health care in Greece is 15.3/100,000 population per year. Most of the arrests occur in health centers, while ventricular fibrillation/ventricular tachycardia are the first monitored rhythms. Almost all GPs were willing to use an AED even though some of them did not know how to use it.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The incidence of OHCA in primary health care in Greece is 15.3/100,000 population per year. Greek GPs may have an important role in managing OHCA victims and are willing to use an AED. This is the first study estimating OHCA in primary health care in Greece.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, University of Athens, Medical School, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Athanasios
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chalkias
authors.forename: Anastasios
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Koutsovasilis
authors.forename: Antonios
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mazarakis
authors.forename: Pavlos
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lelovas
authors.forename: Sotiris
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kakkavas
authors.forename: Lila
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Papadimitriou
authors.forename: Theodoros
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Xanthos
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D016208:Databases, Factual; D047548:Defibrillators / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004554:Electric Countershock / Q000379:methods* / Q000401:mortality; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D005260:Female; D005544:Forecasting; D058005:General Practitioners; D006115:Greece; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D058687:Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016019:Survival Analysis; D016896:Treatment Outcome