You danced to it, it’s still stuck in your head, now use it to save a life.
La Macarena, that foot-thumping feel- good party song of the 1990s, has been found to be the best tune to have in your head - if you have to perform CPR.
Professor Enrique Carrero Cardenal and colleagues at the University of Barcelona, Hospital Clinic Barcelona, and Universitat Autònoma Barcelona, Spain, have found that the quality of chest compressions given during CPR can be improved by using either a smartphone app or using the song the La Macarena.
The quality of compressions during CPR can significantly improve chances of survival of the patient.
Their study compared the effectiveness of a smartphone metronome app and a musical mental metronome, in this case the song La Macarena.
They found both provided a regular rhythm that helps keep time when performing compressions.
The researchers used 164 medical students to perform continuous chest compressions on a manikin for two minutes.
The group was split into two, provided with the smartphone app or asked to give compressions to the mental beat of La Macarena. The smartphone app used an alarm to keep compressions at 103 beats a minute.
The problem with the students in the Macarena group was that they needed to know the song to do the compressions properly. An advantage for them was that there was no delay associated with loading or opening the app.
The authors concluded “both the app and La Macarena improved compressions”.