Background and purpose: Stroke is a medical emergency that demands early recognition for time sensitive acute management. Knowledge about stroke in public has not been found satisfactory in most of the studies worldwide. Studies describing the awareness of public about recognition of stroke and its treatment from Saudi Arabia (SA) are deficient. This study aimed to assess the knowledge of general population living in the Eastern Province of SA about stroke in relation to recognition of warning signs, risk factors and available acute treatment.
Methods: A prospective, cross sectional study was conducted using a structured questionnaire distributed through an electronic web site over a period of six months. The data was analyzed with SPSS version 22.0.
Results: Among a total of 1,213 respondents, 62.4% were women. Three fourth identified the affected organ correctly. Psychological stress was the most commonly identified risk factor (73.5%) followed by hypertension (63.8%). More than half of the respondents (58.5%) were not aware of diabetes mellitus as a risk factor for stroke. Speech difficulty was the most commonly identified stroke warning sign (64.4%) followed by focal weakness (62.4%). More than half (59.9%) did not recognize facial asymmetry as stroke warning sign. Nearly three fourth of the participants were unaware of t-PA (73.7%) and nearest available health care center for acute stroke management (74.9%).
Conclusion: Our survey found the stroke literacy in the population of the Eastern Province of SA as non- satisfactory and highlights the importance of taking immediate measure such as mass media campaign and hospital based activities to improve it.
Keywords: Stroke; acute treatment; awareness; risk factors.
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