Key messages

• We don't know whether first aid training for laypeople (people with no formal healthcare education) improves the health outcomes of individuals receiving first aid, the quality of the first aid provided, or the helping behaviour (involving providing first aid to another person) of lay first aid providers.

• First aid training for laypeople probably increases first aid knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy (the person’s belief in their own ability to provide first aid) in the short term (within one month after the training). However, we don't know about its effect on their willingness to help in the short term.

• Future research should focus on aspects important to decision-makers, such as:

  • standardising questionnaires and other measures to evaluate first aid knowledge, skills, and attitudes;

  • investigating the effects of training in the long term, including the costs and any potential unwanted effects; and

  • determining the impact of first aid training in low- and lower-middle-income countries.

What is first aid training?

First aid involves providing basic care to an ill or injured person. First aid training is a learning activity (e.g. course or programme) with defined learning goals to improve knowledge, skills, or attitudes about providing first aid.

What did we want to find out?

We wanted to find out if first aid training for laypeople (people with no formal healthcare education) was better than a different type of training or no first aid training to improve:

• the health of people receiving first aid;

• the quality of the first aid provided;

• the behaviour of people faced with the need to provide first aid in a real-life emergency situation ('helping behaviour'); and

• the first aid knowledge, skills, self-efficacy (the person’s belief in their own ability to provide first aid), and willingness to help of laypeople who had received first aid training.

We also wanted to know about the costs of first aid training for laypeople and whether there were any unwanted effects.

What did we do?

We searched for studies that investigated physical health first aid training in laypeople compared with another type of training (such as mental health first aid or HIV prevention) or no training. We combined the results of the studies found, and rated our confidence in the evidence based on factors such as study methods and sizes.

What did we find?

We found 36 studies with 15,657 people with no formal healthcare education. Seventeen studies involved adults, and 19 studies looked at children or adolescents. Studies took place in different countries around the world. Most were in high- or middle-income countries (half of the studies were in the USA) but only two studies were in a low-income country (Nigeria).

No studies provided evidence about the impact of first aid training on the health outcomes of people receiving first aid or the quality of first aid provided in real-life emergency situations. One study, with 3070 people, looked at the helping behaviour of laypeople but did not present enough data to allow us to decide whether their helping behaviour is affected by first aid training.

Compared with another type of training or no training, in the short term (within a month after the training), first aid training for laypeople probably increases participant’s first aid:

• knowledge (8 studies, 3515 participants);

• skills (12 studies, 3063 participants); and

• self-efficacy (2 studies, 285 participants).

However, we don't know about the effect of first aid training on willingness to help in the short term (2 studies, 1083 participants).

What are the limitations of the evidence?

We are not confident that first aid training increases helping behaviour, because the evidence came from only one study and there were few opportunities to help. We are moderately confident that laypeople's first aid knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy are improved by first aid training in the short term. However, not all studies clearly reported if they randomly assigned people to receive training, some people in the studies may have known whether they were getting first aid training or not, and there is missing information on how well the measurement tools functioned. We are not confident in the evidence regarding increased willingness to help. Participants may have felt obliged to say they were more willing to help after training as it was the 'right' thing to do, but there were not enough studies to confirm this result.

How up to date is this evidence?

The evidence is up to date to December 2024.