(Paris) In the event of a heart attack in a public place, women are less likely to receive cardiac massage from a witness than men, leading to a greater number of deaths among affected women, researchers said Monday .
Cardiopulmonary or cardiopulmonary resuscitation combines mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and chest compressions to pump blood to the brain of people whose hearts have stopped beating, until help arrives.
As part of research, which will be presented at a medical conference in Spain but which has not yet been peer-reviewed, Canadian doctors sought to understand how these gestures are administered differently to men and women. women.
They examined the records of cardiac arrests occurring outside hospital in the United States and Canada between 2005 and 2015, representing nearly 40,000 patients.
Overall, 54% of patients received CPR from a witness, their research found.
For cardiac arrests that occurred in a public place, in the street for example, 61% of women received a massage, compared to 68% of men.
Alexis Cournoyer, emergency doctor at Sacré-Cœur Hospital in Montreal who conducted the study, told AFP that this gap “increases the mortality of women following cardiac arrest, that’s certain” .
Cardiac arrest is one of the leading causes of death. And only about 10% of victims of cardiac arrest outside a hospital survive, the Canadian team pointed out.
Researchers tried to find a reason for the gender gap.
One hypothesis was that passersby might be embarrassed by the idea of touching a woman’s breast without her consent, said Dr.r Cournoyer. And that age could influence the decision.
Their work did not confirm this: women were less likely than men to receive cardiopulmonary resuscitation from a witness to their heart attack, regardless of their age, according to the data collected.
Another possible explanation, according to Alexis Cournoyer: a “recognition barrier” for women victims of cardiac arrest, often considered, wrongly, as an event that only happens to men.
According to a study published in August in the journal Lancet Digital Health, before a cardiac arrest, men are more likely to experience chest pain — a symptom commonly described in the media — while women are more likely to experience shortness of breath.