Factors influencing paramedics’ and emergency medical technicians’ level of knowledge about the 2015 basic life support guidelines

Table 1 Univariate analysis of the number of correct responses with regard to characteristics of study population

Variables	n (%)	Correct response	p
Sex
Female	174 (57.0%)	12.8 ± 3.5	0.81*
Male	131 (43.0%)	12.7 ± 2.8
Age
< 25	91 (29.9%)	13.0 ± 2.9	0.53***
25–30	80 (26.2%)	12.9 ± 3.3
> 30	134 (43.9%)	12.5 ± 3.1
Profession
EMT	200 (65.6%)	12.5 ± 3.1	0.07*
Paramedic	105 (34.4%)	13.2 ± 3.1
Duty period
≤ 5 years	84 (27.5%)	12.8 ± 2.9	0.46***
6–10 years	148 (48.6%)	12.6 ± 3.3
≥ 11 years	73 (23.9%)	13.1 ± 2.9
Time spent in the unit
≤ 5 years	175 (57.4%)	12.7 ± 3.2	0.44****
6–10 years	102 (33.4%)	12.8 ± 3.2
≥ 11 years	28 (9.2%)	13.5 ± 2.6
CPR training period
Before 2015	222 (72.8%)	12.4 ± 3.1	< 0.01*
2015 and later	83 (27.2%)	13.8 ± 2.9
Number of CPR applications in the last 6 months
≤ 10	281 (92.2%)	12.8 ± 3.1	0.82**
11 and above	24 (7.8%)	12.6 ± 3.7
Defibrillation / cardioversion during CPR
Practicing	177 (58.0%)	13.0 ± 3.0	0.09*
Non-practicing	128 (42.0%)	12.4 ± 3.3
Most recent participation in course/seminar
In the last 3 months	36 (11.8%)	13.9 ± 3.0^a	0.02***
In the last 4–6 months	78 (25.6%)	12.8 ± 3.1^a
In the last 7–12 months	86 (28.2%)	12.6 ± 3.2^a
Most recent CPR guide reading
Never read	36 (11.8%)	12.8 ± 3.2	0.10***
Read in the last 6 months	77 (25.2%)	13.5 ± 3.0
Read in the last 7–12 months	149 (49.9%)	12.5 ± 3.1
Read more than 12 months ago	43 (14.1%)	12.23 ± 3.0

CPR cardiopulmonary resuscitation, EMT emergency medical technician, SD standard deviation
Number of correct responses are given as mean ± standard deviation
*Independent samples t test, **Mann Whitney U test, ***one-way ANOVA, ****Kruskal–Wallis test
^aA Post-Hoc LSD test was performed to determine which group the difference originated from. There is a statistically significant difference between the groups indicated by different letters (p < 0.05)

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