- Title
- Knowledge and perception about stroke among an Australian urban population
- Creator
- Yoon, Sung Sug; Heller, Richard F.; Levi, Christopher; Wiggers, John
- Relation
- BMC Public Health Vol. 1, Issue 14
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-1-14
- Publisher
- BioMed Central
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2001
- Description
- Background: The aim of the study was to measure knowledge about the symptoms, prevalence and natural history of stroke; the level of concern about having a stroke; understanding of the possibilities for preventing stroke, and the relationship between age, sex, country of origin, educational level, income, self-reported risk factors, and the above factors. Methods: A random sample of households was selected from an electronic telephone directory in Newcastle and Lake Macquarie area of New South Wales, Australia, between 10 September and 13 October 1999. Within each household the person who was between 18 and 80 years of age and who had the next birthday was eligible to participate in the study (1325 households were eligible). The response rate was 62%. Results: The most common symptoms of stroke listed by respondents were "Sudden difficulty of speaking, understanding or reading" identified by 60.1% of the respondents, and "paralysis on one side of body" identified by 42.0% of the respondents. The level of knowledge of the prevalence of a stroke, full recovery after the stroke, and death from stroke was low and generally overestimated. 69.9% of the respondents considered strokes as being either moderately or totally preventable. There were few predictors of knowledge. Conclusion: The study suggests that educational strategies may be required to improve knowledge about a wide range of issues concerning stroke in the community, as a prelude to developing preventive programmes.
- Subject
- stroke; stroke prevention; stroke risk factors; Newcastle, N.S.W.; Lake Macquarie, N.S.W.
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1320380
- Identifier
- uon:24142
- Identifier
- ISSN:1471-2458
- Rights
- © Sug Yoon et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2001 This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article: verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any purpose, provided this notice is preserved along with the article's original URL.
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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