Can music lead to better CPR? Yes and no. Any mnemonic hook that helps rescue personnel deliver a good number of chest compressions to heart attack victims is likely good but one song, "Disco Science" by Mirwais, does well yet can only achieve half the CPR goal.
If you are a fan of Guy Ritchie's film "Snatch" you have heard "Disco Science" but may not know that it has 100 beats per minute, around the optimal range for CPR. However, it does not help at all in improving the depth of compression, which may mean it's time to give up on trying to find the best musical gimmick to aid in CPR and just teach it the old fashioned way.
A musical aid is popular because it is a mental hook and in a stress situation may be more accurate than counting 100 in a minute. People know songs so they just follow the beat. When heart attacks occur outside hospitals, starting cardiopulmonary resuscitation as soon as possible,significantly improves survival and can nearly triple discharge rates, the evidence shows.
But the evidence also shows that CPR is often done badly, even when carried out by trained healthcare professionals.
"Disco Science" by Mirwais, though perhaps Not Safe For Work(NSFW):
Writing in Emergency Medicine Journal, the authors sought to find the best song for assisting in CPR. The Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" has been advocated as a suitable tune in the US while the children's song "Nellie the Elephant" had been thought to be the optimal musical accompaniment to aid the delivery of CPR in the UK.
The authors compared "Achy Breaky Heart" by mullet aficionado Billy Ray Cyrus with "Disco Science" by Mirwais with no music at all to see which was more helpful.
Billy Ray Cyrus "Achy Breaky Heart" - which do you want saving your life?
Seventy four delegates attending an Australian College of Ambulance Professionals conference in Auckland, New Zealand, volunteered to deliver CPR on a training dummy. Around half had received CPR training within the previous year.
A third (35%) of the volunteers were intensive care paramedics; one in four (26%) were paramedics; one in five (20%) were students; and a similar proportion (19%) were other health care professionals.
The proportion of volunteers who maintained compressions within the optimal range of 100 to 120 a minute was significantly higher when listening to Disco Science (82%) than when listening to Achy Breaky Heart (64%) or no music at all (65%).
But over a third of compressions were still too shallow, irrespective of the test method applied, and incorrect hand positioning was observed for over half to two thirds of all completed compressions.
"When considering the combined importance of correct depth and rate, the authors are unconvinced that music provides any benefit in improving the quality of CPR compared with a metronome or audible feedback, suggesting that that this interesting but unproductive area of resuscitation research should be discontinued," conclude the authors.
