The Centre for the Advancement of Social Sciences Research (CASR) was commissioned by the The Hong Kong Red Cross (HKRC) to conduct an opinion survey on “Public knowledge and Attitude on First Aid”. A total of 1,003 respondents aged 16 or above were successfully interviewed via telephone. The results were released to the general public on 10 September 2011. According to the results,
1.Public knowledge on first aid was inadequate and fallacious – It was found that respondents could only answered 5 questions correctly out of 10 questions in average; while less than half of the respondents were able to indicate the correct first aid procedures to handle such common accidents like injured by a jellyfish (9.5%), choking (26.6%) and scalds (44%). The findings also indicated that many people are using first aid procedures without basis on scientific evidence. Over 15% of the respondents (16.3%) thought to give vinegar for choking patients; near half of the respondents (47%) would apply topical cream or other fallacious means like soy sauce (4.7%) on scalded wound.
2. Public’s attitudes were positive, but inactive, to learn first aid – over 90% of the respondents agreed that it was crucial to learn first aid knowledge in daily life; public education of first aid was essential; and would offer first aid to people in need if they possessed adequate first aid knowledge and skills. However, there were also over half of the respondent (55%) opined that it was the responsibility of medical professionals to save life and perform first aid; and 36% of the respondents felt that learning first aid might be difficult and complicated.