Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 May 14:9:638516.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2021.638516. eCollection 2021.

Baseline Stroke Literacy of Young Children Based on "FAST 112 Heroes" Program

Kalliopi Tsakpounidou  1 , Socrates Psomiadis  1 , Tatiana Pourliaka  1 , Maria Akritidou  2 , Hariklia Proios  1
Affiliations

Baseline Stroke Literacy of Young Children Based on "FAST 112 Heroes" Program

Kalliopi Tsakpounidou et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Young children are often unaware of emergency health conditions, such as stroke, and could serve as important vehicles to save the lives of their grandparents, who are more likely to suffer a stroke. An important aspect for the evaluation of public awareness on stroke signs and related emergency procedures is to examine the level of baseline stroke knowledge children have and whether they understand when to seek medical care on time. Objective: To examine the level of stroke symptomatology knowledge in children as well as evaluate their preparedness in stroke response before their participation in the educational program "FAST (Face, Arms, Speech, Time) 112 Heroes." Methods: For the purpose of this work, a questionnaire was developed and adapted to preschoolers' needs. The present study involved 123 children (65 boys, 58 girls, aged 4-6.5 years; mean age: 5.30, S.D.: 0.59) from two cities in Greece. Five multiple-choice animated pictures, that were age-appropriate, were administrated to each child, along with verbal explanations provided by the investigator. Results: More than half of the participants (n = 65, 52.8%) could recognize the symptom of face drooping, 53 children (43.1%) could identify the symptom of arm hemiparesis/hemiplegia and 92 children (74.8%) were able to answer the question regarding speech disturbances. However, the number of correct answers to the question regarding the appropriate course of action in case of a stroke was the lowest among all the questions (10.6% of participants gave a correct answer). Furthermore gender and age did not play a significant role (p = 0.571 and 0.635, respectively). Conclusion: Although more than half of the enrolled preschool children could recognize stroke symptoms before their participation in the educational program, their baseline stroke knowledge, prior to their training, is low. Concurrently, they do not have sufficient knowledge on how to react appropriately in the event of a stroke. Therefore, awareness programs focusing on developing stroke literacy to children are needed, to ensure children will seek urgent medical care in case of a stroke.

Keywords: baseline knowledge; children; health literacy; preschoolers; stroke; stroke awareness; stroke knowledge.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Picture-based stroke literacy test, age-adjusted for young children.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Number of children who answered correctly, based on their gender (Note: minimum of correct answers possible: 0; maximum of correct answers possible: 4).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Mean score of children's correct answers to each question of the test, as compared to their gender (Note: 0 is for wrong answers; 1 is for correct answers).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Mean score of correct answers given, based on children's age group.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Vondráčková L, Mikulík R. Public stroke education: current status worldwide and projects to increase awareness in the Czech Republic. Cor Vasa. (2017) 59:e546–e52. 10.1016/j.crvasa.2016.12.004 - DOI
    1. World Health Organization . Global Health Estimates. Geneva: (2012).
    1. Owolabi MO, Akarolo-Anthony S, Akinyemi R, Arnett D, Gebregziabher M, Jenkins C, et al. . The burden of stroke in Africa: a glance at the present and a glimpse into the future. Cardiovasc J Afr. (2015) 26(2 Suppl 1):S27–S38. 10.5830/CVJA-2015-038 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Aguilar MI. Acute ischemic stroke and transient ischemic attack. In: Demaerschalk BM, Wingerchuk DM, editors. Evidence-Based Neurology: Management of Neurological Disorders. Chichester: Wiley; (2015). p. 53–6.
    1. Chugh C. Acute ischemic stroke: management approach. Indian J Crit Care Med. (2019) 23:S140–S6. 10.5005/jp-journals-10071-23192 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types