Kids Identifying and Defeating Stroke (KIDS): Development and Implementation of a Multiethnic Health Education Intervention to Increase Stroke Awareness Among Middle School Students and Their Parents

Abstract

Note: The KIDS website can be found at www.med.umich.edu/stroke/kids/ NIH Public Access Author ManuscriptHealth Promot Pract. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2011 January 1. The KIDS (Kids Identifying and Defeating Stroke) Program is a three-year prospective, randomized, controlled, multiethnic school-based intervention study. Program goals include increasing knowledge of stroke signs and treatment and intention to immediately call 911 among Mexican American (MA) and non-Hispanic white (NHW) middle school students and their parents. This article describes the design, implementation and interim evaluation of this theory-based intervention. Intervention students received a culturally appropriate stroke education program divided into four 50-minute classes each year during the 6 th , 7 th , and 8 th grades. Each class session also included a homework assignment that involved the students' parents or other adult partners. Interim-test results indicate that this educational intervention was successful in improving students' stroke symptom and treatment knowledge and intent to call 911 upon witnessing a stroke compared with controls (p<0.001). We conclude that this school-based educational intervention to reduce delay time to hospital arrival for stroke shows early promise.

Can Children Reduce Delayed Hospital Arrival for Ischemic Stroke?

“…Several authors considered this possibility and stated that they were not aware of such interventions at the time of their studies. In an intervention spanning 3 years, stroke knowledge scores significantly increased for the comparison group for two of three stroke knowledge domains at the interim testing point (Mullen Conley et al, 2010), suggesting the possibility of diffusion of treatment or knowledge acquisition from other sources. Because randomization was at the school level in the aforementioned study, diffusion of treatment is unlikely.…”

“…An additional posttest to gauge knowledge retention was carried out 7 days to 3 months after the intervention in eight studies, and one study evaluated outcomes 15 months postintervention. In the KIDS study, an interim posttest was administered 4 months after the seventh grade intervention followed by a final posttest after the eighth grade intervention (Mullen Conley et al, 2010;Morgenstern et al, 2007). Questionnaires consisting primarily of multiplechoice and close-ended questions assessed outcomes.…”

“…Student sample sizes ranged from 72 to 582, and 3,312 children completed baseline measures. Baseline data were collected from 612 parents in four studies Mullen Conley et al, 2010;Morgenstern et al, 2007; but not analyzed in two studies because of poor response rates (Mullen Conley et al, 2010;Morgenstern et al, 2007). The race/ethnicity of participants were primarily Hispanic (three studies), primarily African American (three studies), and primarily White (one study).…”

“…Homework designed to involve parents was assigned after each lesson, an example of which is children interviewing parents about possible reasons for not calling 911 for symptoms. Another publication reported interim data collected 4 months after the seventh grade intervention (Mullen Conley et al, 2010).…”

Health promotion interventions for increasing stroke awareness in ethnic minorities: a systematic review of the literature

“…In total, 141 full text articles were assessed for eligibility. Eighteen matched the inclusion and exclusion criteria and were included in the review [ 29 , 44 - 60 ]. However, in some cases, more than one article reported the results of the same study, referred to different stages of the study.…”