Pu Christy, Guo Jiun-Yu, Sankara Placide
Institute of Public Health, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Department of Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
AIMS Public Health. 2020 Sep 21;7(4):723-735. doi: 10.3934/publichealth.2020056. eCollection 2020.
In many parts of Africa, there is limited information on awareness of symptoms of stroke, risk factors for stroke and willingness for stroke prevention, both in the general population and in people with stroke. Knowledge and preventive efforts for stroke in patients with a history of the illness are rarely investigated. This study aims to investigate awareness of stroke symptoms in stroke patients who were admitted to hospitals within 72 hours of a confirmed stroke event in Burkina Faso. This study also aims to investigate preventive behavior for stroke for the general population.
Face-to-face interviews were conducted with the participants. The sample included 110 first-time stroke patients who had been admitted to one of three tertiary teaching hospitals in Burkina Faso within 72 hours and 750 participants from the general population, who were recruited through clustered sampling. Knowledge of stroke warning signs and current and future efforts on stroke prevention were also assessed.
Only 30.9% of the stroke patients believed that they were at risk before the stroke episode. Obvious warning signs were unfamiliar to both groups. Only 1.3% of the respondents from the general population group knew sudden weakness face arm or leg as a sign of stroke. For all future efforts in stroke prevention, stroke patients demonstrated significantly lower willingness to undertake behavioral changes than the general population. Sixty-six percent and 85% of the stroke patients and the general population, respectively, were willing to take steps to reduce blood pressure.
Public education on stroke warning signs and strategies to increase willingness to engage in preventive behaviors are urgent in African countries. Strategies to improve public awareness for developing countries such as Burkina Faso should be designed differently from that of developed countries to incorporate local beliefs.
在非洲许多地区，关于普通人群和中风患者对中风症状的认知、中风风险因素以及中风预防意愿的信息有限。很少有研究调查有中风病史患者的中风知识和预防措施。本研究旨在调查布基纳法索确诊中风事件后72小时内入院的中风患者对中风症状的认知情况。本研究还旨在调查普通人群的中风预防行为。
对参与者进行面对面访谈。样本包括110名首次中风患者，他们在72小时内被收治到布基纳法索的三家三级教学医院之一，以及750名通过整群抽样招募的普通人群参与者。还评估了中风预警信号的知识以及当前和未来的中风预防措施。
只有30.9%的中风患者在中风发作前认为自己有风险。两组对明显的预警信号都不熟悉。普通人群组中只有1.3%的受访者知道面部、手臂或腿部突然无力是中风的迹象。对于未来所有的中风预防措施，中风患者表现出比普通人群明显更低的进行行为改变的意愿。中风患者和普通人群中分别有66%和85%愿意采取措施降低血压。
在非洲国家，迫切需要开展关于中风预警信号的公众教育以及提高参与预防行为意愿的策略。对于像布基纳法索这样的发展中国家，提高公众意识的策略应该与发达国家不同，以纳入当地的观念。
