Evaluation of Non-Medical-Sciences Students’ Awareness Score Regarding the Symptoms of Stroke and the Effect of Tree Minutes’ Stroke Educational Video on it in 2022

Background and Objective: Stroke is one of the leading causes of death and/or long-term disability. Sufficient knowledge and awareness about symptoms, complications and the urgency of its treatment in the golden time is essential in terms of the prognosis and the fate of the patient. There are different reports about people’s awareness of stroke and the effect of education on it. This study was conducted to determine the knowledge of non-medical science students about stroke and the effect of watching a three-minute stroke educational video on it.

Methodology: This descriptive-analytical and self-control study was conducted on 100 non-medical students. A validated questionnaire was used to check the stroke awareness. The questionnaire and a 3 min educational video about stroke were provided to the participants in person. Before and after watching the video, the questionnaire was completed by the students. The data were analyzed by SPSS version 22 software using Fisher’s exact tests, Chi-square and paired t-tests at p<0.05.

Results: The Mean±SD and the range of the participants’ age were 21.33±0.47 and 21-22 years respectively, 50% of them were male and 87% of them had no history of encountering a stroke patient. The mean level of knowledge score about the causes, symptoms and complications of stroke after the intervention had a positive significant difference compared to before the intervention (p = 0.001, p = 0.001 and p = 0.04, respectively). There was no significant difference in the opinion of the participants about the effect of watching the video on increasing awareness about stroke and the necessity of gaining public awareness about stroke between men and women. However, watching the educational video showed a significant difference between women and men in the item regarding the increase in awareness about stroke (p = 0.007). After the intervention and with the increase in knowledge about stroke, 98% of participants came to the knowledge that the existence of treatment centers and the stroke patient’s need for specialized treatment must not be accounted for as the main reasons for low or any knowledge about it. In this respect, there was no difference between the men and women.

Conclusion: General awareness about the causes, symptoms, complications and urgency of stroke treatment is not desirable even among students. Education, even in a very limited way, to the extent of watching a three-minute video, can be effective in increasing these awareness.

KEY CONTRIBUTIONS

Simple and brief training about stroke symptoms and the importance of timely referral of cases is important.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

It is recommended to evaluate the impact of different educational methods, the durability of their knowledge and the best target age groups or audience.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We hereby thank the participants in the study and also we thank the Research Ethics Committee of Golestan University of Medical Sciences.