Digital First Aid: Public Health Implications of Laypeople’s Internet Reliance in Medical Emergencies

Abstract Objective This study examined public attitudes and experiences in using the Internet for first aid guidance in real-life medical emergencies. Methods The study involved: (1) an analysis of YouTube comments ( n = 6,786) on first aid videos using latent Dirichlet allocation topic modeling; (2) a survey of completers of an online Basic Life Support course ( n = 731). Results Topic modeling of social media comments revealed users’ frustration with unskippable advertisements, reflecting a collective perception of online videos as a source of immediate advice on first aid in real-life emergencies. According to the survey data, 14.6% of respondents sought online first-aid instructions during a real-life emergency. An additional 8.9% reported similar experiences among friends or relatives. Of those who searched for advice, 90.7% found and i