title: Time delays and capability of elderly to activate speaker function for continuous telephone CPR.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Telephone-CPR (T-CPR) can increase rate of bystander CPR as well as CPR quality. Instructions for T-CPR were developed when most callers used a land line. Telephones today are often wireless and can be brought to the patient. They often have speaker function which further allows the rescuer to receive instructions while performing CPR.We wanted to measure adult lay people's ability to activate the speaker function on their own mobile phone.
  
  
  METHODS
  Elderly lay people, previously trained in CPR, were contacted by telephone. Participants with speaker function experience were asked to activate this without further instructions, while participants with no experience were given instructions on how to activate it. Participants were divided in three groups; Group 1: Can activate the speaker function without instruction, Group 2: Can activate the speaker function with instruction, and Group 3: Unable to activate the speaker function. Time to activation for group 1 and 2 was compared using Mann-Whitney U-test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Seventy-two elderly lay people, mean age 68 ± 6 years participated in the study. Thirty-five (35)% of the participants were able to activate the speaker function without instructions, 29% with instructions and 36% were unable to activate the speaker function. The median time to activate the speaker function was 8s and 93s, with and without instructions, respectively (p < 0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  One-third of the elderly could activate speaker function quickly, and two-third either used a long time or could not activate the function.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Experimental Medical Research, Oslo University Hospital and University of Oslo, Nydalen, Oslo, Norway. tonje.birkenes@laerdal.no
authors.forename: Tonje S
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Birkenes
authors.forename: Helge
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Myklebust
authors.forename: Jo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kramer-Johansen
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D016887:Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation / Q000379:methods*; D040421:Cell Phone; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D013997:Time Factors