Effect of the Preparatory School FAST Stroke Educational Program

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of FAST stroke educational program among all preparatory school students in the state of Qatar. METHODS: The pretest-posttest experimental research design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the FAST educational program in Qatar. A 30-minute audiovisual presentation was given to improve knowledge of stroke. We included grade 7 to 9 students during the academic year 2018–2019. The FAST program consisted of a pretest, an educational intervention, and immediate and long-term posttests at 2 months. RESULTS: A sample of 1244 students completed presurvey and immediate postsurvey, with an average age of 13.5 (1.12) years (range, 11–18 years) and 655 (53%) females. Students had significantly (P < .01) greater knowledge of stroke signs, symptoms, and risk factors at intermediate posttest (5.9 [2.6] and 6.2 [2.4]) and at 2 months posttest (5.6 [2.8] and 5.6 [2.7]) compared with pretest (4.8 [2.6] and 4.9 [2.6], respectively). Students also had a higher self-efficacy to seek assistance, which was sustained from pretest to long-term posttest. CONCLUSION: The FAST program improved stroke knowledge that was retained at 2 months.

In Search of a Gold Standard Tool for Assessing Knowledge of Stroke: A Systematic Review

“…The Stroke Knowledge Assessment Tool [45] and the Stroke Knowledge Test [22] fulfilled our comprehensiveness criteria and covered ≥85% (7/8) of the concepts deemed important for assessing stroke knowledge. In terms of comprehensibility, seven tools fulfilled at least 4/5 criteria related to instruction wording, item wording, response option wording, grammar and spelling, and ease of reading [17‒20, 22, 23, 28]. The Knowledge of Stroke Risk survey [28] and Salam 2022 tool [17] fulfilled all five comprehensibility criteria.…”

“…In terms of comprehensibility, seven tools fulfilled at least 4/5 criteria related to instruction wording, item wording, response option wording, grammar and spelling, and ease of reading [17‒20, 22, 23, 28]. The Knowledge of Stroke Risk survey [28] and Salam 2022 tool [17] fulfilled all five comprehensibility criteria.…”

“…Evidence on responsiveness was available for nine tools, where stroke knowledge was compared before and after an intervention. In six of these studies [17‒19, 22, 28, 62], stroke knowledge was found to improve immediately following an educational intervention, providing evidence of responsiveness. Unexpected findings were reported for the Stroke Preparedness Vignettes [23], where scores were greater at 1 month, compared to immediately following delivery of educational leaflets about stroke [57, 58].…”

“…Most tools were used in a target population of community-dwelling adults, with or without pre-existing vascular disease (Table 1). Three tools were used specifically in a cohort of children [17] and/or their parents [18,19]. Of the 23 included tools, 18 were developed or validated in English language, and a further four had English translations available from the study article or authors.…”