IJCS | Volume 33, Nº2, March / April 2020

168 Novaes Neto & Freitas Factors associated to knowledge of cardiac arrest Int J Cardiovasc Sci. 2020; 33(2):167-174 Original Article The aim of this study is to evaluate the factors associated with the knowledge of Cardiac Arrest by health professionals in a general hospital in the countryside of Bahia - Brazil, as well as to estimate the prevalence of health professionals’ knowledge of CPR. Methods This is a cross-sectional study performed in a large public hospital with a partnership with the Unified Health System, located in the municipality of Feira de Santana, in the countryside of Bahia. The sample of this study consisted of 100 participants, of which 18 were doctors, 32 nurses and 50 nursing technicians who worked in the Medical Clinic, Surgical Clinic, Orthopedic Clinic, Semi-Intensive Care, Adult Intensive Care Units, and Units constituting the Emergency section. Sampling was conducted by accessibility considering the following inclusion criteria: having worked as a physician, nurse or nursing technician of the aforementioned units; having been involved in the procedures related to cardiac arrest in the last 12 months. Exclusion criteria were: doctors, nurses or nursing technicians who were on medical leave, vacation or certified by the time of data collection. The data collection instrument was divided into four blocks: sociodemographic, occupational, training characteristicsandthe specificblock toevaluateknowledge of CA/CPR, named Questionário de Conhecimento sobre Parada Cardiorrespiratória e Ressuscitação Cardiopulmonar (Knowledge of Cardiac Arrest and Cardiopulmonary RessucitationQuestionnaire – KCACPRQ). It was created according to a literature review and the American Heart Association guidelines of 2015. 5 In order to evaluate the content validity of the first version, the KCACPRQ was subjected to evaluation by three judges, a nurse, a doctor and a nursing technician, with expertise in CardiacArrest and Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation as instructors of Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS). These experts assessed the criteria clarity, relevance, content and feedback for each of the CA/CPR questions, and also provided comments and suggestions that qualified the instrument. The judges were allowed, at the time of assessment, to consult the newAHA –2015 guidelines in order to clarify any doubts. After the assessment, approval and meeting the modifications suggested by the group of judges, the final version of the questionnairewith 20 items was elaborated, with five response options, with only one of these being considered correct. Before the actual collection, a pre-test was carried out with a professional from each category in order to detect a potential need for modifications of the questionnaire, and data collection then began. Data collection took place between January and February 2018, after approval by the Research Ethics Committee. In order to verify the ease with which participants responded to the KCACPRQ, the feasibility of the questionnaire was assessed. 6 For this purpose, at the end of each application respondents positioned themselves in an instrument that used as parameters: the level of easiness to understand the instructions of the questionnaire, to understand the questions/items and to indicate the answers. Participants were approached in the workplace and when they accepted to participate, they answered individually to the questionnaire, without the aid of electronic devices or consultation material. To estimate the professionals’ knowledge of CA and CPR, the KCACPRQ generated a percentage from 0 to 100%, since each correctly answeredquestion corresponds to a 5% success rate. TheAHA conductsACLS courses in which the student, in addition to performing well in the practical test, must obtain aminimum score in the written test. In order for the student to obtain a certificate at the end of the test, theAHA establishes a minimum criterion of correctness of 84% in theoretical test. 5 In this study, 85% was adopted as the cut-off point, so the participant who scored 85% or better was classified as having sufficient knowledge. For those who scored below 85%, these were classified as having insufficient knowledge. The research protocol was evaluated and approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana (CAAE: 78645817.2.0000.0053). The participants of the study had autonomy to agree to participate or not, after signing the Term of Free and Informed Consent, which clarified their rights. In addition, the ethical standards of the Declaration of Helsinki of 1975, revised in 2008, were followed, as well as those of Resolution 466/2012. Statistical analysis The data were analyzed through univariate, bivariate and multivariate analyses. In the univariate analysis, the absolute and relative frequencies of each categorical variable were estimated. For the quantitative variables,