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EDITORIALS

Teaching children basic life support skills
Improve outcomes but implementation needs to be earlier and more widespread
RESEARch, p 1201

Ian Maconochie consultant in paediatric emergency medicine, St Mary’s Hospital, london W2 �NY ian.maconochie@st-marys. nhs.uk Bob Bingham consultant paediatric anaesthetist the Hospital for Sick Children, Great �rmond Street, london WC�N 3JH Sheila Simpson senior resuscitation training officer Competing interests: None declared. Provenance and peer review: Commissioned; not externally peer reviewed.
BMJ 2007;334:1174 doi: ��.��3�/bmj.392��.�22�5�.��

Basic life support performed by bystanders improves outcomes in cardiorespiratory collapse, yet less than 1% of the general population can perform it effectively. It has been estimated that if 15-20% of the population could perform basic life support, out of hospital mortality could be significantly reduced.1 The most effective way of achieving this is to teach this technique in schools, making it a “life skill.” In this week’s BMJ, a study by Jones and colleagues assesses the effect of a basic life support programme on the ability of children to administer effective chest compressions on a manikin.2 Of the three age groups compared (9-10, 11-12, 13-14 years), only children aged over 13 years could perform chest compressions to the recommended depth of 38-51 mm as effectively as adults. However, younger children could place their hands in the correct position on the chest to perform basic life support. The authors suggest that younger children could use this knowledge to instruct an adult on the appropriate technique, despite not being able to do it themselves. Also, young children could be taught how to assess the need for basic life support and activate the emergency medical services. These conclusions support the teaching of basic life support to children. Structured courses such as the “Injury minimisation programme for schools” (www.impsweb.co.uk), which