Surveying Need for and Barriers to Accessible CPR Education of Mandarin Speakers in North Carolina

<div role="region" aria-labelledby="abstractSection_Title"> <h3 id="m_-3548710909720291156abstractSection_Title">Background/Objectives</h3> <div>Bystander hands-on cardiopulmonary resuscitation (BCPR) is an effective tool for increasing out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival. To be effective, CPR education must be accessible and acceptable. However, the American Heart Association CPR classes are only available in English and Spanish. The objective of this study was to establish the need for and to identify the barriers to accessing CPR education among speakers of the most common language used by Asian Americans, Mandarin.</div> </div> <div role="region" aria-labelledby="abstractSection_Title"> <h3 id="m_-3548710909720291156abstractSection_Title">Methods</h3> <div>An online survey assessed demographics, CPR training, knowledge, myths, and barriers to access. Recruitment was performed using a snowball technique from March-June 2025 using flyers and emails with QR codes and links to the online survey. Recruitment materials were publicly posted and emailed to Asian-affiliated organizations throughout North Carolina. All materials were available in Mandarin and English. Inclusion criteria were: fluency in Mandarin; &ge;18 years of age; and North Carolina residency.</div> </div> <div role="region" aria-labelledby="abstractSection_Title"> <h3 id="m_-3548710909720291156abstractSection_Title">Results</h3> <div>Responses were received from 113 individuals. Of the 86 respondents meeting inclusion criteria, the majority were: 26-35 years of age (55%; n=47); female (83%; n=71); and Asian (79%; n=68). A similar number of respondents were born in China (49%; n=42) and the United States (51%; n=44). <br /><br />Of the sample, 5% (n=4) never heard of CPR, 9% never heard of an AED, and 24% (n=21) never trained in CPR. Regardless of training, nearly half of respondents were not confident they knew when to perform CPR (49%; n=42). More than half were unable to determine if an unconscious person was breathing (60%; n=51) and unsure how to recognize cardiac arrest (75%; n=64). Of note, only 27% (n=11) of previously CPR-trained respondents felt strongly/moderately confident they knew the CPR steps. The most common CPR myths were: needing a lot of training to learn CPR (72%; n=62); CPR is always effective (59%; n=51); CPR requires mouth-to-mouth contact (58%; n=50). The most common barriers to accessing CPR education were: language (71%; n=61), scheduling (67%; n=58), and financial (45%; n=39) problems.</div> </div> <div role="region" aria-labelledby="abstractSection_Title"> <h3 id="m_-3548710909720291156abstractSection_Title">Conclusions</h3> <div>The results of this study highlight the need for further outreach to untrained individuals and to retrain regularly. Reducing barriers to CPR education, including expanding language offerings and increasing schedule variety, could improve training reach. These results will inform CPR educators&rsquo; future development and delivery of education to minority populations. The primary limitation of this study was the number of people who took the survey. Due to the limited time frame of the survey, and inability to access all counties of North Carolina, a wider population sample should be gathered for future studies.</div> </div>