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Cardiac arrest
Women still get less bystander CPR in public
Sex differences in bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation and survival to hospital discharge for public out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in North Carolina and Singapore: a retrospective cohort study
Resuscitation Plus · 2026-10 · Added 31 October 2026
A retrospective cohort of 10,445 public out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in North Carolina and Singapore found women were less likely to receive bystander CPR in both regions (aOR 0.87 and 0.78), with survival favouring women in North Carolina but men in Singapore.
- Study type
- Registry
- Design
- Retrospective dual-registry cohort (CARES North Carolina, Pan-Asian RESC Singapore)
- Participants
- 6,828 OHCAs in North Carolina and 3,617 in Singapore
- Main finding
- Public bystander CPR: 48% of men vs 44% of women in North Carolina (aOR 0.87) and 59% vs 52% in Singapore (aOR 0.78); survival to discharge favoured women in North Carolina (aOR 1.15) but men in Singapore (aOR 0.63)
- Caveat
- Registry data, and the opposite-direction survival findings between the two regions are unexplained
- Bottom line
- Supports current practice
Why it matters in Australia (High relevance). Bystander CPR rates are a system-wide measure every Australian community can act on, and the gap replicated across two very different registries a decade apart.
Learning goal
Recognise how sex-related barriers to bystander CPR in public settings affect my cardiac arrest care.
More
- Topic: Cardiac arrest
- Daily scan: 31 October 2026
- Podcast: Paramedic Papers Daily, 31 October 2026
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