Those who suffer sudden cardiac arrest in Latino neighborhoods are less likely to receive Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), according to research presented Monday.
The study, presented by the American Heart Association (AHA), evaluated the cases of more than 18,500 people between 2011 and 2015 and found that, in neighborhoods with more than three-quarters of the Latino population, only 27% of the cases received CPR, 10 points below the general average.
Released today at the AHA Resuscitation Science Symposium, the analysis found that the overall percentage of timely CPR delivery in a neighborhood for a person suffering cardiac arrest is 37%.
In neighborhoods where Latinos make up less than a quarter of the population, it is 39%, 12 points more than in neighborhoods with more than 75% Hispanics.
Likewise, among all the patients studied, Latinos were 27% less likely to receive this aid than non-Hispanic whites.
Audrey Blewer, lead author of the study and assistant director of educational programs at Penn Medicine’s Resuscitation Science Center, noted that “the early provision of CPR by someone can significantly improve the results.”
However, Blewer noted that “survival is low” in the face of unexpected cardiac arrest that occurs outside a hospital.
The victims of cardiac infarction in neighborhoods with a large majority of the Latino population were about 40% less likely to survive than the general average.
The data “were taken from the Resuscitation Results Consortium, a network of clinical trials on emergency medical service systems and hospitals in the United States and Canada,” the report said.
The study recommended that in the Hispanic neighborhoods the teaching and practice of the CPR system be intensified with the use of only the hands, which consists in applying repeated pressure to the chest of the person who has suffered the infarction.
“We need to offer communities with less aid rates a simple and effective CPR training,” Blewer said.
