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#BreakTheBias this International Women’s Day with Singapore Heart Foundation and Philips Foundation
Increasing women’s access to community care by raising awareness of disparities in bystander responses during cardiac emergencies
Singapore, 8 March 2022 – In commemoration of International Women’s Day on 8 March 2022, Philips Foundation and its partner, Singapore Heart Foundation (SHF), are calling for more public support to #BreakTheBias in bystander responses toward helping women during cardiac emergencies by raising awareness about the disparity in bystander responses toward performing CPR+AED on women during cardiac emergencies.
The number of preventable female cardiac-related fatalities remain high today. About 3,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) occur in Singapore every year, with about one-third of the casualties being women.
Despite the fact that immediate application of CPR and AED can raise survival rates by as high as 50% in such cases, the current bystander AED rate for women is still comparatively low at 4.8%, which is half that of male casualties (8.5%).
Singaporean women are especially at risk as only 9% of those surveyed were aware that heart disease and stroke is the leading cause of death for women here. This lack of awareness, coupled with the low bystander AED rate for women, makes them a vulnerable population in terms of cardiac health.
A recent 2022 study conducted across nine Asian communities found that in public locations, the bystander CPR rates were 31.2% for females and 36.4% for males . In Singapore, the 2020 “Knowledge, Attitude and Practice survey on CPR+AED” report revealed that 6% of 1,003 respondents quoted the fear of being accused of molestation as a deterrent to performing CPR on a female stranger. Many also fear inflicting injury on female cardiac arrest casualties. These factors contribute to females being less likely to receive CPR+AED from a bystander during sudden cardiac arrest as compared to males. By offering complimentary CPR+AED Certification Course (Blended Learning) slots, Philips Foundation and SHF hope to increase bystander confidence through education, effectively increasing access to care within the community.
“These findings indicate that there is still a bias around performing CPR on women. Due to the nature of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, the presence of an educated and well-equipped community can go a long way in bringing down the mortality rate of these incidences and support better patient outcomes,” said Ms Ivy Lai, Country Manager, Philips Singapore. “Increasing access to bystander CPR training is one way of reducing healthcare inequality and improving access to care.”
“For every minute that the cardiac arrest victim does not receive resuscitation, the chance of survival drops by 7-10%. Hence, it is important to be equipped with the right mindset and techniques to effectively administer CPR+AED without hesitation. Recognising this gender disparity, SHF created the first female CPR manikin vest last year, distributing it to 40 CPR+AED training centres in Singapore. Over the past year, SHF has trained more than 960 people with the female manikin vest. We remain dedicated to bridging the gap further by raising awareness and educating the community by giving out complimentary CPR+AED certification courses,” said Mr Vernon Kang, Chief Executive Officer of SHF.
As part of an ongoing partnership between SHF and Philips Foundation to increase access to care, we have committed to giving out 500 fully-funded CPR+AED Certification Course (Blended Learning) slots (U.P. $64.20) to members of the public, of which 168 will be made available on a first-come-first-served basis starting 8 March. One way that members of the public can show their support to #BreakTheBias in bystander CPR+AED responses towards women this International Women’s Day is by registering for these slots at https://www.myheart.org.sg.
The class combines online theory and in-class practice to ensure individuals have a thorough understanding of CPR and AED for both male and female casualties. The online theory provides fundamental theoretical knowledge such as how to determine unresponsiveness and identify situations that require CPR, and the two-and-a-half-hour practical and assessment conducted by certified instructors at SHF will honour participants with a 2-years validity CPR+AED certificate upon successful completion of training.
For more information about SHF’s CPR+AED Certification (Blended Learning) Course, please visit www.myheart.org/learn/cpr-aed-blended-learning.
1 Bystander CPR and AED Rates for Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Cases 2018 by UPEC and SCDF.
22020 Go Red for Women Survey, Singapore Heart Foundation
3Women who suffer from an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest are less likely to receive CPR from a bystander.
