Awareness of Iranian Medical Sciences Students Towards Basic Life Support; a Cross-Sectional study

Augmentation of the number of trained basic life support (BLS) providers can remarkably reduce the number of cardiac arrest victims. The aim of this study was to evaluate the level of BLS awareness among students of medical sciences in Iran. This multicenter cross-sectional study was performed on medical students at the 4 major medical schools in Tehran, the capital of Iran, between Jan 2018 and Feb 2019, using convenience sampling method. The level of medical sciences students' awareness of BLS was measured using an international questionnaire. Finally, 1210 students with the mean age of 21.2 ± 2.3 years completed the survey (79% female). 133 (10.9%) students had CPR experience and none had received any formal training. None of the responders could answer all questions correctly. The mean awareness score of participants was 11.93 ± 2.87 (range: 10.13 -17.25). The awareness score of participants was high in 49 (4.04 %) participants, moderate in 218 (18.01%), and low in 943 (77.93%) of studied cases. Based on the findings of this study, more than 70% of the studied medical sciences students obtained a low score on BLS awareness.