About half of people in Scotland do not feel confident administering CPR if needed in an emergency, a survey has found.
Fear of causing an injury (22%) and lack of skills (19%) were the top reasons, closely followed by being put off by visible vomit or blood (19%) and indications the person is a drug user (16%).
A fear of being sued (8%) or catching a disease (10%) were also cited in the out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) report by the Open University for the Scottish Government.
The study was set up to explore ways of improving people's understanding and knowledge of emergency CPR.
It states that survival rates from OHCA in Scotland currently stand at 5% and those who receive CPR from a bystander before professionals arrive are "far more likely to survive to hospital discharge than those who do not".
The survey of more than 1,000 people found 77% think everyone should be CPR trained but just 52% are.
Of those trained, 44% did so over five years ago and just 28% within the last year.
The majority of respondents who were CPR-trained received it because it was a requirement of their employment or was offered to them through voluntary work.
The study found that the older a person is, the less likely or willing they were to be CPR-trained.
The report said: "These findings are particularly relevant considering that most OHCA happen in the homes of older people."
Employment was also an influential factor identified among people who had CPR training.
The report authors - Fiona Dobbie, Anne Marie MacKintosh and Linda Bauld - recommend a targeted campaign to improve the rate of bystander CPR.
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