Awareness of the Double-sided Metalized Plastic Sheeting Application among Laypeople and Healthcare Providers
Keywords:
space blanket, hypothermia, knowledge, first aidAbstract
Space blanket is used in first aid as passive protection against hypothermia, as it reduces the loss of body heat. Laypeople as well as health workers can find themselves in situations where a casualty or a person who suddenly becomes sick requires help with simple tools. Using an online survey, we found that 92% of health workers (n = 429) and 77% of laypeople (n = 813) were familiar with the space blanket, which was statistically different (p <0.05, hi-square). Two thirds of health workers and a half of laypeople (p <0.01) thought that the space blanket is very useful for a person in hypothermia. The percentage of health workers who thought that the space blanket was useful for active heating of the casualty was statistically significantly (p <0.01) lower than the percentage of laypeople, but it was still high (almost 2/3). Among the respondents who were not trained in first aid for more than 10 years, the usable knowledge of the space blanket was weaker. The research shows that the understanding of the proper use of the space blanket is poor since a large part of the respondents does not distinguish between passive
protection against hypothermia and active warming of casualties. In future, key stakeholders in the field of first-aid training should encourage more frequent knowledge recovery and raise awareness among laypeople and healthcare providers about the use of the space blanket.
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