title: National population based survey on the prevalence of first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation and automated external defibrillator skills in Singapore.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study aimed to assess knowledge, attitudes and practices among Singapore residents towards life-saving skills and providing emergency assistance in the community using a population representative sample.
  
  
  METHODS
  A population based, random sample of 7840 household addresses were selected from a validated national sampling frame. Respondents were interviewed using face-to-face interview method. One adult aged between 18 and 69 years within each household was randomly selected using the "next birthday" method.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The response rate achieved was 65.2% with 4192 respondents. The distribution of age, gender and ethnic group were similar to the Singapore resident population for 2009. A high proportion of participants believed that adults should be trained in first aid (89.1%) and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) (82.6%) while a lower proportion (57.2%) believed this for automated external defibrillator (AED). Proportion who had ever been trained in first aid was 34.3%, CPR was 31.4% and AED was 10.7%. In an emergency, respondents were most willing to use life-saving skills on family members or relatives (87.6%), followed by friends and colleagues (80.7%) and complete strangers (61.3%). Common barriers to applying life-saving skills were lack of knowledge (36%), fear of doing harm (22.1%) and lack of confidence (15.3%). Respondents who were more likely to have current life-saving certification were younger employed Malay male (p<0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study found that although a high proportion of respondents believed that adults should be trained in first aid, CPR and AED, the proportion who had ever been trained in these skills are much lower.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore; Office of Clinical Sciences, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Singapore. Electronic address: marcus.ong.e.h@sgh.com.sg.
authors.forename: Marcus Eng Hock
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Ong
authors.forename: Joy Li Juan
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Quah
authors.forename: Andrew Fu Wah
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yap
authors.forename: Nausheen
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Edwin
authors.forename: Yih Yng
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Ng
authors.forename: E Shaun
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Goh
authors.forename: Benjamin Sieu-Hon
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Leong
authors.forename: Han Nee
authors.initials: HN
authors.lastname: Gan
authors.forename: David Chee Guan
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Foo
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016887:Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D047548:Defibrillators / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D005392:First Aid / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012846:Singapore
keywords: AED; Attitudes; CPR; First aid; Knowledge; Life-saving skills