Introduction:

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is a leading cause of global mortality; it is estimated that each year 33,000 to 53,000 people die from sudden death in Mexico. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) learning at younger ages has shown promising results, prompting the recommendation of CPR training in the high-school curricula. Currently, there is no information about CPR knowledge in the university population of our country.

Objective:

We aimed at estimating the level of knowledge and attitude towards CPR among the university students of central-western Mexico.

Material and methods:

A cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted among the students of 30 Mexican university centers between February and March 2020; a self-administered questionnaire was distributed to the participants. All data were collected and statistically analyzed.

Results:

Two hundred ninety-four (n = 294) students were included (mean age 21.04 ± 1.95 years). Although 37% of students had been previously trained, only 12.9% could give an accurate description of the CPR technique. Notably, 98.9% of the participants desire to receive additional CPR training, and 57.1% would be willing to act if they had the appropriate prior knowledge. Health science students had the highest number of correct answers among other academic areas (p = 0.001).

Conclusions:

Despite the evidence supporting CPR training and familiarization with automated external defibrillators at younger ages, Mexico has no laws to promote them in the high-school curricula. The poor outcomes obtained reinforce the necessity for better health policies and practical CPR training, probably through innovative methods that allow retention of knowledge.