Awareness of basic life support among medical students in Syria, Iraq and Jordan: a cross sectional study

Background: Sudden cardiac arrest is one of the most leading causes for death in all over the world. Basic life support (BLS) training rates vary worldwide, there is a general scarce in the number of Surveys which evaluate knowledge, and awareness about BLS in Middle Eastern countries students especially Jordan, Syria and Iraq. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the awareness of basic life support among medical students. Methods: : A Cross sectional web based questionnaire study was conducted in November 2020. The study included 2114 medical students in Syria, Iraq and Jordan. We evaluated BLS skills according to total mean score of correct answers. The participants were classified according to gender, residence, country, University, academic degree, and academic stage to study their effect on the participants’ BLS knowledge. A chi-squared test was used to determine if there were differences between those who attended a basic life support course and those who did not. Results: : 1656 of the participants (78.3%) stated that they did not attend a basic life support course. There was a significant difference between the participants from different countries where the mean score in Syria, Jordan and Iraq was 18.3, 24.3 and 18.8 respectively (p < 0.05). The participants were divided into 3 level according to total score; low (0-12), moderate (13-24) and high (25-37). In total, 18.3%, 72.8% and 8.9% of participants had high, intermediate and low level respectively. Conclusion: The overall knowledge of basic life support among medical students is not adequate and need significant improvements. This study showed that an attendance a basic life support course previously had an effect on knowledge level. Hence, there is an urgent need to apply basic life support courses into the pre-clinical stage at universities.