Despite improvement in CPR training, the survival rate for women experiencing cardiac arrest outside of a hospital has not improved significantly, especially for Hispanic women. The American Heart Association is determined to change that fact through a new initiative launching across the country, reports Priscilla Casper of NBC Boston.
Without quick bystander CPR, cardiac arrest is typical fatal. Cardiac arrest can happen to anyone at any time whether they are at home, at work, or in public. In fact, about 70% of cardiac arrests that happen outside of a hospital happen at home.
In the United States, Hispanics-Latinos and African Americans are at a higher risk for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest with a poor prognosis due to longstanding structural racism and social policies that have limited access to quality education and health care. CPR is also less common in Black and Hispanic-Latino neighborhoods.
A study, published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, found the greater the percentage of Hispanic-Latino residents in a neighborhood, the lower the chances of receiving bystander CPR and the lower the chances of survival.
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