Assessing First Aid and CPR Proficiency and Related Factors among Traffic Police Officers in Managing Road Traffic Injuries in Colombo District, Sri Lanka

Road traffic injury (RTI) has become an increasingly significant public health issue and one of the leading causes of death among children and young adults. Traffic police officers can play an essential role in providing first-aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for the victims promptly minimizing the consequences in RTI. This study aims to determine the knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to first aid and CPR in road traffic injuries (RTIs), and the influencing factors for these outcomes, among traffic police officers in the Colombo District, Sri Lanka. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among consecutively selected police officers (n=148) with one year of experience. A pretested (n=10) self-administered questionnaire with 88 items was used to collect the data. Chi-square tests were used to determine the associated factors with the level of practice. The ethical approval was granted for this study by the Ethics Review Committee, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. Most of the males belonged to the age group of 21-30 years with work experience of 1- 4 years. Among the participants, 38%, 54%, and 8% of the traffic police officers had an excellent, good, and poor level of knowledge, respectively. Further-more, 96% of the traffic police officers had a poor level of practice. Level of practice was found to be associated with attitude, work experience, first-aid training, gender, and age. In conclusion, despite good theoretical knowledge, traffic police officers demonstrated poor first-aid and CPR practice, underscoring the urgent need for structured, hands-on training programs to bridge the gap between knowledge and real-world performance.