Black and Hispanic individuals who experience cardiac arrest at home or in public are less likely to receive cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) from a bystander than white individuals, according to a study being presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 71st Annual Scientific Session next week.

Around 9 in 10 people who experience cardiac arrest outside a hospital die; however, CPR can markedly improve their chances of survival. 

Unfortunately, this latest nationwide study concluded that Black and Hispanic individuals were 41% less likely to receive CPR than white individuals when suffering cardiac arrest in public. And even in the event of cardiac arrest occurring at home, they were 26% less likely to receive CPR. 

“This disparity wasn’t only present in majority white communities, but also in majority Black and Hispanic communities,” said the study's senior author Paul S. Chan, MD, cardiologist at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute and professor of medicine at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine. “A white person going into cardiac arrest in a community that was more than 50% Black and Hispanic was still more likely to get bystander CPR than a Black or Hispanic person in that community,” Dr. Chan added.

Read the full SELF article: Study: Black and Hispanic People Are Less Likely to Receive CPR From Bystanders