FAST enough? The UK general public’s understanding of stroke

Abstract

-Good public awareness of stroke symptoms and the need for rapid admission to hospital can improve patient outcomes. However, evidence suggests that this awareness is currently inadequate. Therefore, it is important to identify gaps in public knowledge to target public health campaigns appropriately. This questionnaire study of 356 adults in Birmingham city centre assessed the general public's understanding of stroke, whether demographic factors affect this and the influence of a national campaign (FAST) on knowledge. The mean overall knowledge score was 11.8 out of 15; however, only 54.2% of those questioned knew that diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol were stroke risk factors. Of those questioned, 60.2% were aware of the FAST campaign. General understanding of stroke was fairly good, although it was found to be worse in the youngest, oldest age and nonwhite groups. Although there was good awareness of the FAST campaign, many people did not know what the individual letters meant. Based on the results of our study, we conclude that it might take considerable time for public awareness campaigns to achieve their full impact.

Public knowledge of warning signs and risk factors of cerebro-vascular stroke in Ismailia Governorate, Egypt

“…In our study, diabetes mellitus was less frequent risk factor for CVS as 16.8% of participants reported it when close-ended question was asked. This result was negative when compared to previous studies about diabetes mellitus as risk factor for CVS in UK [17] 62.4%, in Hong Kong [16] 60%, in Spain [8] 59%, in Georgia [15] 69%, in India [18] 31%, in Pakistan [11] 33.4%, and in Oman [12] 22.8%, while this result was positive when compared to the result of Benin [10] 0.3%.…”

“…This result was in agreement with different studies that showed the most frequent identifiable risk factor for stroke was as follows. In Ain Shams and Fayoum University study [13], 73.8% was hypertension and 54.9% was stress; in Spain [8], 92% was hypertension; in South Korea [14], 68% was stress; in Georgia [15], 96% was hypertension; in Hong Kong [16], 90% was hypertension; in UK [17], 94.1% was hypertension; in Benin [10], 34.5% was hypertension and 7.6% was stress; in India [18], 54% was hypertension; in Pakistan [11], 69.1% was hypertension and 55.8% was stress; and in Oman [12], 34.5% was hypertension.…”

Differentiating arterial ischaemic stroke from migraine in the paediatric emergency department

“…The FAST to call emergency medical services message, developed in the UK, has been adopted as the main stroke public education message by stroke advocacy organizations in several countries, including the USA, Australia, and the UK. Sixty‐two per cent of parents were familiar with the FAST to call emergency medical services acronym for the symptoms of stroke, at similar rates to a recent UK study, suggesting that public education programmes are reasonably effective, even in younger adults …”

“…Sixty-two per cent of parents were familiar with the FAST to call emergency medical services acronym for the symptoms of stroke, at similar rates to a recent UK study, suggesting that public education programmes are reasonably effective, even in younger adults. 24 The study has several limitations. The different methods of patient selection for the AIS and migraine groups, and the retrospective data entry for patients with AIS presenting after hours, are sources of study bias.…”

Calling for a rapid recognition and response program for stroke in China

“…Further, many people did not know what the acronym stood for. [20] Among the nearly 1·4 billion people in China, only about 0·8% (i.e., up to 10 million people excluding Hong Kong) of the population is considered capable of speaking English. [21] Thus, it is very clear that direct usage of "FAST" will be ineffective.…”