COMMUNITY CARDIAC AWARENESS TEACHING IN A RURAL AREA - THE POTENTIAL FOR A HEALTH PROMOTION MESSAGE

Little information has been published on the uptake of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training in rural areas or on the potential to as sociate a health promotion message with skills training. This paper de scribes CPR instructor and community training programmes in Ireland. P ublic interest in these programmes has been strongest in rural areas, which have constituted the main focus of activity to date. High-qualit y training of lay instructors has been a specific target of the progra mmes, which have included a significant health promotion message. In t he pilot rural area, almost 2% of adults aged between 15 and 64 years attended a course during the first year of operation. However, the sel f-reported risk factor profile of participants suggests significant un der-estimation of risk factors such as obesity, hypertension or raised blood cholesterol. While general population teaching programmes can a ttract large numbers of participants, even in isolated rural areas, th e perceived relevance of an associated health promotion message may be very low. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd