Aim To evaluate associations between rescuers' anthropometric characteristics and chest compressions (CC) depth according to 2010 resuscitation guidelines.

Methods 186 medical and pharmacy students, never trained in basic life support (BLS) before, underwent video self-instruction training. The participants were asked to perform a BLS test on a manikin connected to a PC for 6 min immediately after training, and the quality of the cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) skills was evaluated.

Results Women with body weights less than 56 kg were 6.29 times more likely to produce insufficient CCs than women weighing 56–62.7 kg, and 4.72 times more likely to produce insufficient CCs compared with women weighing more than 62.7 kg.

Conclusions Lightweight rescuers may have difficulty achieving the full compression depth of 5–6 cm required by new resuscitation guidelines. These rescuers require special attention during CPR training, with an emphasis on correct body positioning and use of body weight for CCs.