A line of CPR dummies on the floor.
Women lying on the street receiving CPR from a Bystander
A line of CPR dummies on the floor.
CPR and WOMEN
A study in 2018 found that bystanders are less likely to preform CPR on women for fear of being accused of assaulting the victim, causing the victim harm, or not believing that she is in distress to begin with. According to the American heart assortation women have a 39 percent chance of receiving CPR from a bystander compared to the 45 percent chance that men have to receiving CPR. There are several reasons for this the big one is that people are afraid that when performing CPR they will be exposing the women or the bystander will ne accused of sexually assaulting or grouping her. The study reports that 44.4 percent of participants felt that this reason stops them from feeling comfortable performing CPR.
Another reason is that the bystanders are afraid that they would hurt the women because a misconception that women are more fragile, and preforming CPR would cause more harm then good. 73.2 percent of participants without CPR training made them feel uncomfortable performing CPR. Another reason was people do not believe that the victim is in medical distress. Heart attacks in women differ from how they present in men however we have been taught how to identify how heart attacks present in men because for the longest time how heart attacks were presented in women was not studied the way it was in men. This causes misconception about what is happening to be widespread.
Sources
MIT EMS/CrimsonEMS, October 26, 2023, JEMS, https:/www.jems.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Breast-Adjunct-COver-1024x624.jpg
March 30, 2022, Prestan, https://www.prestan.com/clientuploads/images/FemaleCPR_cropped.jpg
Marilynn Marchione, "A study suggest women are less likely to get CPR from bystanders", STAT, Associated Press, November 13, 2017, https://www.statenews.com/2017/11/13/women-cpr-bystanders/
Health and Safety Institute, "Women are Less Likely to Recieve Bystander CPR", https:://hsi.com/blog/women-are-less-likely-to-receive-bystander-cpr#:~:text=Recent%20studies%20highlight%20gender%20discrepancies,were%2023%25%20highter%20than%20women's
Sarah S Gul, Torben K Becker, Carolina B Maciel, Travis Murphy, Teddy S Youn, Scott A Cohen, Emmett Martin, Josheph A Tyndall, and Carlos L Alviar, "Public Perception Towards Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Victims: Potential Reasons Influencing the Decision to Perform Bystander Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation", AHA/ASA journals, November 5, 2018, Vol. 138, No. 2 https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/circ.138.suppl_2.194
Alana Holland, "Why women are less likely to receive lifesaving CPR", 13 on your side, ABC, February 7, 2025, https://ww.wzzm13.com/article/news/health/womens-heart-health-cpr-less-likely-than-men/69-10ba6bc4-cfa3-4299-b2da-6efdcf0852cl
Synclaire Cruel, "No Matter Where They Live Women are Less Likely to Get Bystander CPR", Duke University School of Medicine, February 27, 2024, https://medschool.duke.edu/news/no-matter-where-they-live-women-are-less-likely-get-bystander-cpr
BehindMind Cyn, "Why Do Some People Think Women Are Delicate", Medium, June 02, 2024, https://medium.com/write-a-catalyst/why-do-some-people-think-women-are-delicate-9684ba3748b9#:~:text=Girls%20and%20boys%20are%20equally,myth%20that%20is%20not%20true%20