The Impact of Body Mass Index Values on the Quality of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation: A Manikin Study

Objective: The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of body mass index (BMI) on the quality of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) by using a manikin. Methods: 50 people composed of research assistants, intern doctors, emergency medical technicians and nurses who had previous cardiopulmonary resuscitation experience performed CPR on Laerdal Skillmeter Resusci-Anne (R) with SimPad manikin during the study. BMI data of participants were recorded and then the participanst were categorised as BMI <21 and BMI >21. Compression data obtained from the summary section of SimPAD QCPR were compared with the participants BMI values. Results: 18 (36%) out of 50 participants were male, while 32 (64%) were female. 16 (32%) out of 50 participants were in the slim group, while 34 (68%) were in the normal group. Mean age of participants was calculated as 26.8 +/- 4.2, and mean BMI as 22.56 +/- 3.32. Mean compression depth in the slim group was significantly lower in comparison to the normal group (slim51.94 +/- 4.64, normal 55.79 +/- 4.35, p=0.006). Compression ratiowith sufficient depth in the slim group was statistically lower than the normal group (slim 66.19 +/- 25.79, normal 87.29 +/- 19.36, p=0.002). A statistically significant positive correlation was found in the lineer regression analysis conducted between mean compression depth and BMI (r2:0.179, p=0.002). Moreover, a significant positive correlation was observed in the pearson correlation analysis of mean compression depth and BMI (r: 0.423, p=0.002). Conclusion: As a result, it was found out that low BMI values are associated with low mean compression depth.