Community-Based Education Improves Stroke Knowledge

Abstract

Background and Purpose: Despite advances in stroke therapy, the public remains uninformed about stroke, and few stroke patients present to the hospital in time to receive treatment. Health education campaigns can increase community awareness and may decrease time to hospital presentation among stroke patients. Methods: We conducted a community-based education campaign utilizing television and newspapers to inform the residents of King County, Wash., USA, about stroke and the need to call 911. The effectiveness of the campaign was assessed, using a pretest-posttest design, through telephone interviews with residents of King County. Results: Prior to the education campaign, 59.6% of persons in King County could name a risk factor for stroke, but only 45.2% knew that the brain was the organ of injury. And while 68.2% of persons stated that they would call 911 in the event of stroke, only 38.6% could name a symptom of stroke. The knowledge deficit was greatest among Asian-Americans, men, the less educated and low-income residents. There was a significant increase in stroke knowledge following the education campaign; respondents were 52% (p = 0.005) more likely to know a risk factor for stroke and 35% (p = 0.032) more likely to know a symptom of stroke after the campaign. Conclusions: Baseline knowledge about stroke among the public is poor, but can be increased through public education campaigns.

Awareness Of Stroke Risk Factors And Warning Signs And Attitude To Acute Stroke

“…We found that 84.3% of patients spontaneously named at least one risk factor while most studies reported percentages that range 40 to 79% [13,16,18,20,[32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41].…”

“…Indeed, only 69.5% would activate emergency medical service. Becker [36] and Rowe [49] have reported very similar results concerning intended activation of emergency medical service, though several other authors have found better results reporting percentages of subjects seeking emergency medical care that range from 72 to 90% [13,18,25,35,50,63,64].…”

Stroke-Related Knowledge, Beliefs, and Behaviours of Chinese and European Canadians: Implications for Physical Therapists

“…17 The health belief model has been adapted to incorporate a broader range of predictive variables, including demographics, socio-psychological factors, health motivation, and perceived control. 18 Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine CCs' knowledge of stroke, their lifestyle-related health behaviours and beliefs, and potential relationships among these factors. This research constitutes an important step toward preventing and managing stroke (and possibly other lifestyle-related conditions common in Western cultures) among Chinese immigrants to Canada.…”

Recommendations for Stroke Management: Update 2003

“…Reasons for this shortcoming include poor awareness of stroke signs by the victim or family with inappropriately planned action on seeking immediate medical help, and not perceiving stroke as an emergency by medical personnel 15,[27][28][29] . These facts emphasize the need for continuous education, especially through mass media campaigns.…”