Knowledge of Stroke Risk Factors among Stroke Survivors in Nigeria

Awareness of stroke, its signs, and risk factors: A cross-sectional population-based survey in Ghana

Background and Aims

The prevalence of stroke in sub-Saharan Africa is steadily rising, leading to a growing strain on the healthcare system in the region. In the context of Ghana, stroke ranks as the third most prevalent cause of mortality. The current body of scholarly research on stroke awareness in Ghana is quite limited. The aim of this study is to assess the level of awareness of stroke, as well as its signs and symptoms among the Ghanaian population.

Methods

The study employed a cross-sectional quantitative methodology, wherein 1000 participants completed self-administered structured questionnaires. Descriptive statistics were utilized to summarize the participants' socio-demographic characteristics and their responses. To assess the relationship between participants' sociodemographic traits and their awareness of stroke signs, symptoms, risk factors, and perception, the Chi-square test of independence was conducted using IBM SPSS version 26. A significance level of p < 0.05 was established.

Results

The study identified limited awareness regarding stroke symptoms, warning signs, and risk factors. The participants exhibited an overall knowledge range of 25.9% to 47.2% concerning stroke signs and symptoms, and a range of 24%-39% regarding its causes and risk factors. Notably, paralysis (70.8%) and diet (59.9%) were the most easily recognized warning signs and risk factors for stroke, respectively. Sociodemographic characteristics such as age, religion, educational status, exposure to stroke, employment status, and marital status were shown to be associated with participants knowledge of stroke (p < 0.05).

Conclusion

The study's results indicated a widespread lack of knowledge concerning the causes and risk factors of stroke among the Ghanaian population, highlighting the necessity for increased public education efforts to raise awareness about this condition.

Medications adherence and associated factors among patients with stroke in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Background

Stroke is one of the most significant neurological problems around the world, and is considered a leading cause of death. Due to polypharmacy and multimorbidity, stroke patients are susceptible to have lower levels of adherence to their medications and self-care activities.

Methods

Patients who have suffered a stroke and had recently been admitted to public hospital were approached for recruitment. Patients' adherence to their medications was examined using a validated questionnaire during an interview between the principal investigator and the patients, where patients' adherence to their self-care activities was assessed using a developed, validated and previously published questionnaire as well. Reasons for lack of adherence was explored from the patients. Verification of patient's details and medications was done via the patient's hospital file.

Results

The mean age of the participants (n=173) was 53.21 (SD= 8.61) years. Assessing patients' adherence to medications showed that more than half of them stated that they sometimes/often forgot to take their medication/s, while 41.0% sometimes/often stopped their medication/s from time to time. The mean adherence to medications score (out of 28) was 18.39 (SD=2.1), with 83.8% having a low adherence level. It is found that patients who did not take their medications were due to forgetfulness (46.8%) and complications from taking the medications (20.2%). Better adherence was associated with higher educational level, higher number of medical conditions, and higher frequency of glucose monitoring. Adherence to self-care activities showed that majority of patients performed correct self-care activities three times a week.

Conclusion

Post-stroke patients in Saudi Arabia have indicated low levels of medication adherence, while reporting good adherence to their self-care activities. Better adherence was associated with certain patient characteristics such as higher educational level. These findings can help in focusing the efforts to improve adherence and health outcomes for stroke patients in the future.

Knowledge on Prevention of Stroke and Its Associated Factors Among Hypertensive Patients at Debre Tabor General Hospital: An Institution-Based Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction

Globally, stroke is the second leading cause of death. About 70% of strokes were occurring in low- and middle-income countries, and high blood pressure is the main risk factor of stroke due to its poor recognition of stroke prevention methods. Therefore, the study aimed to assess knowledge on stroke prevention and its associated factors among hypertensive patients at Debre-Tabor General Hospital, Northwest Ethiopia, 2020.

Methods

An institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Debre-Tabor General Hospital from February 20 to March 20/2020. A systematic random sampling technique was used. Data were collected through an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Data were entered into Epi data version 4.2.0.0 and exported to SPSS version 25 for cleaning and analysis. A reliability test was done, and the Cronbach alpha coefficient value was 0.709. Bivariate and multivariable binary logistic regression analyses were done, and variables with a p-value of ≤0.05 in the multivariable analysis were considered as statistically significant at a 95% confidence interval.

Results

From 423 study participants, 410 of them responded completely and a response rate is 96.92%. Among the total respondents, 24.9% (95% CI: 20.7, 29.3) of participants had good knowledge of stroke prevention methods. Young age (AOR: 2.082; 95% CI (1.071, 4.049)), urban residence (AOR: 3.230; 95% CI (1.665, 6.267)), and having long followed-up duration (AOR: 3.015; 95% CI (1.870, 4.861)) were factors associated with good knowledge on stroke prevention methods.

Conclusion

This study revealed that participants had poor knowledge of stroke prevention. Young age, urban residence, and having long duration hypertension follow-up were predictors of good knowledge on stroke prevention. These findings have immense importance of different stakeholders that have responsibilities on the reduction of hypertension complications characteristically stroke. Further, it is chief for health-care providers for hypertension intervention activities.

Awareness about stroke among high and low risk individuals in Khartoum, Sudan: a cross-sectional study

Introduction

stroke causes 10.17% of all deaths in Sudan. Levels of stroke awareness amongst patients in Sudan are unknown. The aim of this study is to assess the level of awareness of stroke risk factors, symptoms and immediate management amongst high and low risk patients.

Methods

using descriptive cross-sectional study, participants of high and low risk groups were recruited from the referral clinics of three tertiary hospitals in Khartoum. Data was collected through interviews using structured questionnaire. Knowledge score was devised to assess the awareness about stroke symptoms, risk factors, and management.

Results

of the 286 participants, 150 were females. The mean age was 44.66 years. About 79.4% reported that stroke is preventable. Hypertension was the most identified risk factor (71.6%) while genetics (0.2%) and alcohol (0.2%) were the least identified risk factors. Twenty-seven percent (27.6%) did not know any stroke risk factors, while 32.9% did not know any warning symptoms. Paralysis of one side of the body was the most identified warning symptom (30.7%). The mean awareness score was 21.9 ± 3.4 among the high risk group vs. 22.1 ± 3.6 among the low risk group with no statistically significant difference between the two groups (p = .717). The mean awareness score was statistically associated with the level of education (p < 0.001).

Conclusion

the awareness level was relatively low and not statistically different between high and low risk groups. We recommend the development of an effective educational program for the whole community.