Cardiopulmonary resuscitation training in schools following 8 years of mandating legislation in denmark: A nationwide survey

Background-school cardiopulmonary resuscitation (cpr) training has become mandatory in many countries,but whether legislation has translated into implementation of cpr training is largely unknown. we assessed cpr training of students following 8 years of legislative mandates in denmark. methods and results--a nationwide cross-sectional survey of danish school leadership (n=1240) and ninth-grade homeroom teachers (n=1381) was carried out for school year 2013-2014. qualitative interviews and the theory of planned behavior were used to construct the survey. logistic regression models were employed to identify factors associated with completed cpr training. information from 63.1% of eligible schools was collected: 49.3% (n=611) of leadership and 48.2% (n=665) of teachers responded. according to teachers,28.4% (95% ci 25.0% to 32.0%) and 10.3% (95% ci 8.1% to 12.8%) of eligible classes had completed cpr and automated external defibrillator training,respectively. among leadership,60.2% (95% ci 56.2% to 64.1%) reported cpr training had occurred during the 3 years prior to the survey. factors associated with completed cpr training included believing other schools were conducting training (odds ratio [or] 9.68 [95% ci 4.65-20.1]),awareness of mandating legislation (or 4.19 [95% ci 2.65-6.62]),presence of a school cpr training coordinator (or 3.01 [95% ci 1.84-4.92]),teacher feeling competent to conduct training (or 2.78 [95% ci 1.74-4.45]),and having easy access to training material (or 2.08 [95% ci 1.57-2.76]). conclusions--despite mandating legislation,school cpr training has not been successfully implemented. completed cpr training was associated with believing other schools were conducting training,awareness of mandating legislation,presence of a school cpr training coordinator,teachers teacher feeling competent to conduct training,and having easy access to training material. facilitating these factors may increase rates of school cpr training. © 2017 the authors.