FRIDAY, July 31 (HealthDay News) -- Children as young as 9 years
old can and should learn cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), Austrian
researchers say.

In a study of 147 students who received six hours of life-support
training, 86 percent of the children performed CPR correctly at a
follow-up session four months after the training, according to the report
published online in the journal Critical Care.

"The usefulness of CPR training in schools has been questioned, since
young students may not have the physical and cognitive skills needed to
perform such complex tasks correctly," Dr. Fritz Sterz, of the Medical
University of Vienna, said in a news release from the journal's
publisher.

"We found that, in fact, students as young as 9 years are able to
successfully and effectively learn basic life-support skills. As in
adults, physical strength may limit depth of chest compressions and
ventilation volumes, but skill retention is good," he added.

In the training program, the children were taught CPR, how to use of
automatic defibrillators, the correct recovery position and how to call
for emergency services. Body mass index, not age, was the major factor in
depth of CPR compressions and amount of air exhalation. That means that a
well-built 9-year-old child can be just as capable at CPR as an older
child, the researchers said.

"Given the excellent performance by the students evaluated in this
study, the data support the concept that CPR training can be taught and
learned by schoolchildren and that CPR education can be implemented
effectively in primary schools at all levels," Sterz and colleagues
concluded.

More information

The American Heart Association has more about CPR.