Udaya Ranawaka1, Chamila Mettananda2, Chamila Thilakarathna3, Anushka Peiris3, Anuradhini Kasturiratna4, Yasoma Tilakaratna3. 1. Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka; Professorial Medical Unit, North Colombo Teaching hospital, Ragama, Sri Lanka. 2. Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. Electronic address: chamila@kln.ac.lk. 3. Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. 4. Department of Public health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Stroke awareness is known to influence treatment seeking and risk reduction behavior, but there is limited data from Sri Lanka and South Asia. AIM: To describe stroke awareness in incident stroke patients and to compare with patients without stroke and/or ischemic heart disease (IHD) in a Sri Lankan tertiary-care center. METHODS: We studied awareness of stroke in all incident stroke patients admitted to a tertiary-care center in Sri Lanka and compared with a group of age- and sex-matched patients without stroke and/or IHD, over 2 years. Knowledge on stroke mechanisms, risk factors, symptoms, prognosis, treatment, and prevention were evaluated using a 40-item interviewer-administered questionnaire and converted to a composite score of 100%. Total awareness was categorized as Very poor (<24%), Poor (25%-49%), Good (50%-74%), and Very good (>74%). RESULTS: One hundred and sixty four incident stroke patients (mean age 62.0 ± 11.5 years; 64.6% males) and 164 patients without stroke and/or IHD were studied. Mean stroke awareness was 47.79% ± 14.6 in stroke patients, and 47.73% ± 14.9 in the nonstroke and/or IHD patients (P = .95). Of the associations studied, better stroke awareness (>50%) was associated only with higher education levels (OR 1.90, 95%CI 1.33-2.72, P < .001) in stroke patients. CONCLUSIONS: Stroke awareness is not satisfactory in incident stroke patients and is no better than in patients without stroke and/or IHD. Better stroke awareness was associated with higher education levels.
BACKGROUND:Stroke awareness is known to influence treatment seeking and risk reduction behavior, but there is limited data from Sri Lanka and South Asia. AIM: To describe stroke awareness in incident strokepatients and to compare with patients without stroke and/or ischemic heart disease (IHD) in a Sri Lankan tertiary-care center. METHODS: We studied awareness of stroke in all incident strokepatients admitted to a tertiary-care center in Sri Lanka and compared with a group of age- and sex-matched patients without stroke and/or IHD, over 2 years. Knowledge on stroke mechanisms, risk factors, symptoms, prognosis, treatment, and prevention were evaluated using a 40-item interviewer-administered questionnaire and converted to a composite score of 100%. Total awareness was categorized as Very poor (<24%), Poor (25%-49%), Good (50%-74%), and Very good (>74%). RESULTS: One hundred and sixty four incident strokepatients (mean age 62.0 ± 11.5 years; 64.6% males) and 164 patients without stroke and/or IHD were studied. Mean stroke awareness was 47.79% ± 14.6 in strokepatients, and 47.73% ± 14.9 in the nonstroke and/or IHDpatients (P = .95). Of the associations studied, better stroke awareness (>50%) was associated only with higher education levels (OR 1.90, 95%CI 1.33-2.72, P < .001) in strokepatients. CONCLUSIONS:Stroke awareness is not satisfactory in incident strokepatients and is no better than in patients without stroke and/or IHD. Better stroke awareness was associated with higher education levels.
Authors: Adnan A Mubaraki; Adel S Alqahtani; Abdullatif A Almalki; Ahmed H Almalki; Hamdan M Alamri; Mishaal K Aburass; Zeyad H Althumali Journal: Neurosciences (Riyadh) Date: 2021-10 Impact factor: 0.735