Women receive less CPR due to sexual accusation fears, suggests study

A recent study suggests that bystanders are more hesitant to publicly perform CPR on women than on men for fear of being accused of sexual harassment, Australia’s ABC reported last week.

In a study presented at the European Emergency Medicine Congress last month, Canadian researchers looked at 39,391 people who suffered cardiac arrests out of hospitals between 2005 and 2015. Around 54% received CPR from bystanders. 

Of the incidents that occurred in public, 61% of women received CPR against 68% of men. This was true regardless of the women’s ages. In private spaces, however, older women were 9% more likely to receive CPR than men.

“Our study shows that women experiencing a cardiac arrest are less likely to get the CPR they need compared to men, especially if the emergency happens in public,” said Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal Emergency Physician and researcher Dr Alexis Cournoyer. “We don’t know why this is the case. It could be that people are worried about hurting or touching women, or that they think a woman is less likely to be having a cardiac arrest. 

“We wondered if this imbalance would be even worse in younger women, because bystanders may worry even more about physical contact without consent, but this was not the case.”

A related study in 2019 found that fears of “inappropriate touching” and accusations of sexual harassment are believed to be the main explanations for hesitancy to perform CPR on women. Researchers asked 548 participants, “Do you have any ideas on why women may be less likely to receive CPR than men when they collapse in public?” 

“Members of the general public perceive fears about inappropriate touching, accusations of sexual assault, and fear of causing injury as inhibiting bystander CPR for women,” concluded researchers.

Dr. Stuart Fischer, an internal medicine physician in New York, says political correctness does not apply when a woman suffers a cardiac arrest. 

“Men might be reluctant to do CPR on women because they may fear legal or emotional consequences from it,” Dr. Fischer told the Daily Mail. “A man getting down on his knees on the sidewalk with a woman who has had a major emergency, many men may be unnecessarily uncomfortable doing that.” 

But the physician added, "It's not a social occasion. It's a medical emergency.”

“It could seem inappropriate,” Dr Fischer said. “Whereas it's the opposite, it's highly appropriate. Political correctness has to be left far behind.”