KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE TOWARDS CARDIOPULMONARY RESUSCITATION AND DEFIBRILLATION AMONG MEDICAL OFFICERS IN GOVERNMENT PRIMARY CARE CLINICS IN KELANTAN, MALAYSIA

Abstract

Introduction

Sudden cardiac arrest has been one of the leading causes of out-of-hospital mortality worldwide, particularly in Malaysia. In this study, we want to assess the knowledge, attitude, determine the preferred method of resuscitation, and establish the associated factors between demographic and training exposure with knowledge and attitude towards CPR and defibrillation among government primary care clinic medical officers.

Methods 

A cross-sectional study was conducted on 192 government primary care physicians based over ten districts in Kelantan using a self-administered questionnaire. Stratified random sampling was applied in determining the sample size. This study was analysed using descriptive statistics and Multivariate Logistics Regression.

Results 

One hundred ninety-two respondents were analysed. We found out that 68.8% of government primary care clinic medical officers in Kelantan have good knowledge towards CPR and defibrillation. 90.6% of government primary care clinic medical officers in Kelantan have a good attitude towards CPR and defibrillation. 59.9% of medical officers would not perform mouth-to-mouth ventilation during CPR. Among 192 medical officers, the majority preferred both ventilation and compression (CPR), 77.6% of medical officers. There were no significant association between related variables towards knowledge of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Defibrillation. Clinics having defibrillator (p-value = 0.048) was statistically significant with the attitude towards Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Defibrillation with the Odds Ratio of 3.70 when adjusted for other variables.

Conclusion

Overall, government primary care clinic medical officers in Kelantan, Malaysia, possess good knowledge and positive attitude towards CPR and defibrillation, but this cannot be used as a sole predictor because the practice was not studied in this research.