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Abstract
Objective There is a growing focus on ensuring the availability of automated external defibrillators (AED) in sport settings to assist in preventing sudden cardiac death. For the AED to be most effective, understanding how best to integrate it with wider risk management and emergency action plans (EAP) is needed. The aim of this survey was to identify sports club/facility member knowledge of AED use and club EAPs, 6 months following participation in a government-funded AED provision and cardiopulmonary resuscitation training programme.
Methods Cross-sectional survey of community sports clubs and facilities in Victoria, Australia. Included participants were members of sports club/facilities that had been provided with an AED and basic first aid training as part of a government programme to increase access to, and awareness of, AEDs. A descriptive analysis of availability of EAPs and AEDs, together with practical scenarios on AED use and maintenance, is presented.
Results From 191 respondents, more than half (56%) had no previous training in AED use. Knowledge on availability of an EAP at the club/facility was varied: 53% said yes and knew where it was located, while 41% did not have, or did not know if they had, an EAP. Responses to clinical scenarios for use of AED were mostly accurate, with the exception of being unsure how to respond when ‘a participant falls to the ground and is making shaking movements.’
Conclusions While there were positive outcomes from this programme, such as half of the respondents being newly trained in emergency first aid response, further improvements are required to assist members with embedding their AED into their club/facility EAP and practices.
- sports medicine
- out-of-hospital cardiac arrest
- sudden death
- sports and recreational facilities
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Footnotes
Contributors All authors made substantial contribution to the information and material submitted and have read and approved the final version. LVF, CFF and DM designed the study and were awarded funding for the larger programme of work to which this study contributes. LVF performed the data collection, analysed the data and wrote the manuscript. CFF, DM and LW assisted with the data collection, interpretation of results and critical insights for the manuscript.
Funding This study was supported by the Victorian State Government (Sport and Recreation Victoria) who provided funding for conduct of the project from which this study was derived.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent for publication Not required.
Ethics approval The project, including this cross-sectional survey, was approved by the Federation University Australia Human Research Ethics Committee.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data availability statement No data are available.