Abstract

Yahea Abdullah Alzahrani, Dr. Naif Edah Alomairi*, Mushari Hamed M. Althomali, Abdulaziz Musaad Althagafi, Abdullah Hosni M Kutbi and Salman Abdulhafez T Alzaidi

ABSTRACT

Background: Among important causes of delay of stroke management and consequently poor prognosis is poor knowledge regarding stroke risk factors, symptoms and appropriate response to acute stroke. Objectives: To assess knowledge of stroke risk factors, symptoms, protective factors and management among patients attending outpatient clinics of tertiary hospitals in Taif, Saudi Arabia as well as to determine factors associated with knowledge. Subjects and methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted at two tertiary hospitals in Taif city, Saudi Arabia. It included a simple random sample of patients attending outpatient clinics of these two hospitals during the period between 1st May-31st May, 2017 The study instrument used was a structured self-administered questionnaire, which consisted of two main sections: general characteristics of the participants (age, gender, income, education), and knowledge of stroke (symptoms, risk factors, protective factors and management including neuroimaging). Results: The study included 96 patients. Almost two-thirds of them (62.5%) aged between 20 and 35 years. Most of them (72.9%) were males. Less than half of the participants (44%) heard about or knew a person affected by stroke. Most of them (81.1%) knew that stroke affects the brain. The highest known risk factor for stroke was hypertension (37.5%), followed by smoking (10.4%). Regarding protective factors against stroke, the highest known factor was daily physical exercise (57.3%), followed by healthy diet (26%), hypertension control (22.9%) and cessation of smoking (11.5%). Concerning stroke symptoms, the most frequent known were slurring of speech (47.9%), sudden loss of consciousness (43.8%) and sudden face/hand/lower limb numbness (41.7%). Only 13.5% of the participants could recognize the fact that there is a role of neuroimaging (CT, MRI) in the diagnosis and management of stroke. Only 6 persons (6%) knew that the expected complications of stroke as hemorrhage can be seen by neuroimaging. The availability of endovascular treatment of stroke such as thromboectomy was recognized by only one patient (1%). The overall distribution of the percentage of total knowledge score ranged between 4 and 56% with a mean±SD of 23.96±9.4. Conclusion: Knowledge regarding stroke is suboptimal among outpatients in Taif city, particularly concerning role of diabetes as a risk factor, role of neuroimaging in management. Proper heath education for the general public is highly needed.