title: Awareness about basic life support and emergency medical services and its associated factors among students in a tertiary care hospital in South India.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The knowledge and skills about the basic life support (BLS) and the advanced life support are the most important determining factors of the cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) success rates.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine the level of awareness on BLS and skills among undergraduate and postgraduate students of medical and dental profession, as well as nursing students and interns in a tertiary care hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital in South India. The awareness level on BLS and factors associated which include age, sex, level of training (undergraduate, internship, and postgraduate groups), course of study (nursing, dental, and medical groups), and previous exposure to BLS were assessed by using a structured questionnaire. The association of these variables with awareness level was assessed by independent t test, analysis of variance, and linear regression analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among 520 study subjects, 229 were students, 171 were interns, and 120 were postgraduate students. The overall mean score of awareness was 4.16 ± 1.40 (score range: 0-10). Age, sex, level of training, course of study, and previous exposure to BLS were significantly associated with awareness level in univariate analysis (P < 0.05). Linear regression model also showed that all the above variables were significantly associated with awareness level (P < 0.05). About 322 (61.9%) subjects attributed lack of awareness about BLS to lack of available professional training. About 479 (92.1%) responded that BLS training should be a part of medical curriculum.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Awareness level on BLS is below average indicating the importance of professional training at all levels in a tertiary care health institution.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Kawdoor Sadananda Hegde Medical Academy, Mangalore, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Akshatha Rao
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Aroor
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Rama Prakash
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Saya
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Kawdoor Sadananda Hegde Medical Academy, Mangalore, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Nazir Rahim
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Attar
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Ganesh Kumar
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: Saya
authors.affiliation: Reader and Research Scholar, Department of Endodontics and Conservative Dentistry, Indira Gandhi Institute of Dental Sciences, Sri Balaji Vidhyapeeth University, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, India.
authors.forename: Manikandan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ravinanthanan
keywords: Awareness; BLS; CPR; India; basic life support (BLS); cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR)
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