Performing CPR to the Macarena?

Humming The Macarena Could Help You Save a Life When Doing CPR

The 103 beats-per-minute tempo of 1990s dance classic Macarena is the perfect speed for performing CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation), a new study shows – and knowing that could end up saving a life.

During a test of 164 students, those told to hum the Macarena in their heads ended up hitting the right tempo much more often than those who weren't given any guidance.

Whether or not the Spanish pop tune by Los Del Río fits in with your musical tastes, being able to stick to the recommended rate of 100-120 chest compressions per minute can be crucial for the effectiveness of CPR, the team of researchers says.

"[It] is the most famous song in Spain, and probably one of the most well known in the world, and the beat of the chorus of the song is 103 bpm, a correct rhythm for performing the rate of compressions," one of the team, Enrique Carrero Cardenal from the University of Barcelona in Spain, told the Guardian.

Almost all the students involved in the study had been taught CPR before, and were asked to administer it to a dummy for a period of two minutes. Some were told to run through Macarena in their heads, some were given a metronome smartphone app to use (set to the right tempo), and some weren't given any advice at all.

Those who used the app did the best of all, hitting the right CPR tempo for 91 percent of their compressions, on average. For the Macarena group, that rate was 74 percent.

Both were way ahead of the control group given no guidance – students in that group only managed the right tempo 24 percent of the time.





The research has been presented at the European Anaesthesia Congress 2018 in Denmark, read the article in its entirety here:
https://www.sciencealert.com/save-someones-life-with-cpr-and-macarena-beat