The effect of emergency first aid training on the incidence of accidents in factories

Four hour courses in emergency first aid training were attended by groups of workers at two factories. Prior to training the experimental group had worse injury accident records than a group of workers matched by job, age, sex, job specific experience and nationality. Following the course experimental subjects’ injury accident rates improved relative to the injury accident rates of the control subjects. Evidence from interviews held before and after the first aid courses suggested that this occurred despite the fact that the experimental subjects became more willing to report their minor injuries. These findings support those of studies carried out in Canada.