Bystander Helping Behaviour for Myocardial Infarction Following First Aid Training

Bystander Helping Behaviour for Acute Myocardial Infarction Following a First Aid Training Programme That Draws Attention to the Barriers to Providing Help - Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial

Status

Completed

Phases

Study type

Interventional

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT00954161

Enrollment

144

Registered

2009-08-07

Start date

2009-09-30

Completion date

2011-01-31

Last updated

2011-05-03

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Acute Myocardial Infarction

Keywords

First aid, Helping behaviour, Health education, Myocardial infarction, Emergencies

Brief summary

The objective of this study is to measure the effect of an innovative training programme on the help seeking behaviour and helping rates of bystanders in medical emergencies.

Detailed description

A systematic review on the effects of first aid training concluded that training must also include ways to overcome obstacles to bystander intervention. This could lead to better help and higher helping rates in medical emergencies. The objective of this paper is to measure the effect of an innovative training programme on the help seeking behaviour and helping rates of bystanders in medical emergencies. We chose to test the helping behaviour for acute myocardial infarction because it is an important cause of mortality and invalidity. While the victim is urgently in need of help, delay in seeking professional help is an important problem.

Interventions

OTHERHelping behaviour curriculum

The objective of the helping behaviour curriculum is to sensitise participants to develop a helping reaction, and to teach participants how to deal with barriers to helping. The helping behaviour curriculum is being taught in 2hours.

OTHERFirst aid only curriculum

Two hours training on first aid for alcohol and drug incidents

Study design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

PARALLEL

Masking

SINGLE (Investigator)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Age

18 Years to No maximum

Healthy volunteers

Yes

Inclusion criteria

* Course participants that are 18 years or older

Exclusion criteria

* Course participants that are younger than 18 years * Health care students * Health care professionals

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Delay time for seeking help during deception experiment	within 4 weeks after the control or intervention training	Time to seeking help was measured between the simulated patient grabbing the heart and the study participant opening the door to get help.

Secondary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Rate of helping during deception experiment	within 4 weeks after control or intervention training	This refers to the number of participants that assessed the victim, or asked for help, or provided direct help to the victim during the test.
First aid self efficacy belief	within 15 minutes after experimental or control intervention	scores on 6 questions related to helping behaviour barriers with the following structure: I will do x (action) even if y (barrier)
Impact of event	Within 15 minutes after deception experiment	This indicates how shocking the study participants found the simulated emergency situation
State of mood	Within 15 minutes after deception experiment	Indication of how study participants feel after being told about the deception.
Credibility of deception	Within 15 minutes after deception	Indication of how credible study participants found the simulated emergency situation

Countries

Belgium

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Mar 26, 2026