LEVEL OF KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE COMMON RISK FACTORS AMONG PATIENTS WITH ACUTE STROKE

ABSTRACT
Introduction: Currently, stroke represents a serious problem in public health. Stroke is a common, long-term condition
that has a considerable impact on individuals, families and health and social care services. Stroke is one of the leading
cause of death and disability in the world and the problem is more pronounced in the developing countries like Pakistan,
but very limited epidemiological data is available. The most important component of stroke awareness is to know the
true risk factors. Increased knowledge of stroke risk factors in the general population may lead to improved prevention
of stroke. Diabetes, hypertension, smoking, hyperlipidemia, obesity are important risk factors of stroke the identification
of these risk factors by patients and their control can lead to prevention of stroke related mortality and morbidity.
Objective: To determine level of knowledge about the common risk factors among patients with acute stroke.
Methodology: This study was conducted at the department of Emergency Medicine, Study design was descriptive cross
sectional study and the duration was one year (12/12/2016 to 11/12/2017) in which a total of 174 patients were studied.
All patients presenting with acute stroke and having a GCS of ≥ 13, Males and females above 35 years of age were
included. All patients were first councelled for interview first. All the patients were subjected to interview on the basis of
questionnaire prepared and on the basis of number of answers given correctly, they were categorized as having good,
average or poor knowledge. The interviews were conducted in presence of an expert physician fellow of CPSP. All the
above mentioned information including name, age, gender and address were recorded in a pre designed proforma.
Data was analyzed in SPSS version 18. Mean + SD was calculated for numerical variables like age. Frequencies and
percentages were calculated for categorical variables like gender and level of knowledge (good, average and poor).
Level of knowledge was stratified among age and gender to see the effect modifications. All results were presented in
the form of tables and graphs.
Results: The mean age of total patients was 59.06+11.27 years with 110 (63.2%) males and 64 (36.8%) were females.
Most of our patients were in older age group i.e. 71.49% above the age of 55 years. After assessing the knowledge through
questionnaire 13 (7.5%) patient had good knowledge 39 (22.4%) average knowledge122 (70.1%) poor knowledge.
Conclusion: The level of knowledge of patients about stroke risk factors was poor.
Key Words: Stroke, level of knowledge, risk factors.