Awareness about Stroke and Proper Actions to Be Taken; A room for Improvement

Abstract

Objective: To assess the awareness level about stroke's risk factors, warning signs, and proper actions to be taken.

Method: A cross-sectional study of 600 adults was conducted using a validated questionnaire. Participants who were able to recognize at least 5 risk factors, 3 warning signs, and defined calling the ambulance in the first 3 hours of a suspected incident were considered knowledgeable.

Results: The average age was (27.7 ± 11.5) with a female predominance. The majority (59.3%) were able to correctly define 5 or more risk factors, 68.3% of participants were able to identify at least 3 warning signs of stroke whilst 9.5% were not able to identify any warning signs. More than 70% of participants were willing to call ambulance within 3 hours while 86.2% preferred counseling doctors within 24 hours. Participants who intended to call the ambulance in the first 3 hours were significantly younger (76.1%), mainly students (45.4%) and were able to identify at least 5 risk factors (64.5%) and 3 warning signs of stroke (74.1%).

Conclusions: Despite reporting a relatively higher level of public's knowledge regarding stroke, there is a persistent gap in their knowledge of stroke risk factors, and the importance of seeking emergency medical care.

Keywords: Saudi; Stroke; awareness; knowledge; warning signs.