Training program in resuscitation maneuvers delivered by teachers in a school setting: An economic argument

Introduction: Training school children may help to increase the rate of citizen-initiated resuscitation. However, training in school settings exclusively by healthcare professionals would lead to high costs for the Portuguese National Health Service. The aim of this study was to assess the costs and effectiveness of training by school teachers, in comparison with training provided by healthcare professionals. Methods: A quasi-experimental study was performed, with assessments before, immediately after, and two and a half months after the intervention. The costs and effectiveness of the training were compared in a sample of 362 students from the 10th, 11th and 12th grades, when performed by school teachers (experimental) versus health professionals (control). Results: Regarding knowledge retention and chest compressions, there was no significant difference between the groups two and a half months later. Regarding practical skills, the experimental group had improved more at two and a half months than the control group. However, no statistically significant differences were observed between the groups using multivariate analysis. The implementation and annual maintenance costs were 4043 and 862 euros, respectively, in the experimental group, and 8561 and 6430 euros in the control group. Discussion and Conclusions: The training provided by school teachers presented similar levels of effectiveness obtained at a lower cost, compared to the same training led by health professionals. This result suggests that generalizing training performed by school teachers could be valuable.