Public Stroke Knowledge: Does a Link Exist Between the Presence of Risk Factors and Knowledge of Warning Signs?

Zachary Jarou, Nathaniel Harris, Liza Gill Meena Azizi, Shayef Gabasha, Robert LaBril Michigan State University

Background

stroke is the 3rd leading cause of death in the United States also the primary cause of severe, long-term adult disability, significantly burdening the health care system

Background

only 1-8% of ischemic stroke patients in the US receive thrombolytics

73% are excluded secondary to delay in seeking medical attention after the onset of stroke symptoms

Does a correlation exist between:

Purpose

# of stroke risk factors present in an individual

their ability to correctly identify warning signs

Hypothesis
In an ideal world, it would be great if those at greatest risk knew what to look for In the real world, we predict that those at greatest will be the least able to identify the warning signs of stroke

 cross-sectional survey 245 members of the public grocery stores and malls at medium-size university town in Midwest 17 multiple-choice items 6 warning signs (yes/no/unsure) 7 past medical history (yes/no/maybe) 4 demographic (gender, age, education, PCP) MSU IRB x13-139e

Methods

 data was analyzed using Stata (version 12) frequency of responses for each variable prevalence of risk factors ability to identify warning signs demographic information univariate analysis t-test = knowledge by gender ANOVA = knowledge by level of education & # risk factors multivariate regression analysis

Methods

 The median age of respondents was 40, with a range from 18 to 88 years old.

Results

Results

Results

 This study suggests that individuals with an increased number of modifiable stroke risk factors are less able to correctly identify stroke warning signs compared to healthier individuals. The results also suggest that some stroke symptoms are more easily recognizable to the public than others. These findings should be replicated in larger and more representative samples before developing future stroke awareness campaigns.

Conclusions

Limitations

# of symptom foils have risk factors been screened for? quantifying tobacco & alcohol use quantifying frequency of PCP visits small # of subjects with 3+ risk factors, low level of education effect of open ended questions

References

AHA Statistical Update: Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics 2011; 123:e18e209.
Barber et al. Why are stroke patients excluded from TPA therapy? An analysis of patient eligibility. Neurology 2001; 56:1015-1020.

Kleindorfer et al. Temporal Trends in Public Awareness of Stroke Warning Signs, Risk Factors, and Treatment. Stroke 2009, 40:2502-2506.

Questions?
Thank you to our mentors! Henry Barry MD, Clare Luz PhD, Carlos Rios MPH ScD Department of Family Medicine Michigan State University College of Human Medicine