Background and Purpose:
We have reported that stroke lesson by stroke neurologists for junior high school students improved their stroke knowledge. For the next step, we investigated whether junior high school students could get the knowledge only by stroke education with a comic book and animated cartoon, which we produced to spread the stroke knowledge widely.
Methods:
We produce a comic book and a 10-minutes animated cartoon instructing stroke risk factors, stroke sign and symptoms, and encouraging immediate calling for emergent medical service (EMS) on identification of stroke signs and symptoms (the FAST message). Three stories were involved in this comic book and animated cartoon. The first one was a case of acute ischemic stroke treated successfully with hyperacute thrombolytic therapy. The remaining 2 stories were cases of transient ischemic attack; a case of preventing stroke successfully with an appropriate action of his family, but the other case of suffering from a completed stroke with delay of the hospital visit due to the lack of stroke symptom knowledge. From December 2011 to March 2012, 493 students in 15 classes of the 1
st
grade (12 - 13 years old) of 3 junior high schools were enrolled. Each subject was distributed the comic book and watched the animated cartoon. Stroke lessons were not performed. Questionnaires on stroke knowledge were examined before, immediately after, and 3 months after the intervention.
Results:
Proportions of correct answer in all questions except arrhythmia were significantly higher immediately after the intervention than at baseline. At 3 month, higher proportions of correct answer for facial palsy, speech disturbance, hemiplegia, numbness of one side, calling 119 for stroke, alcohol drinking, smoking, and obesity were preserved as compared with those at baseline;75% vs. 33%, 91% vs. 60%, 79% vs. 52%, 58% vs. 51%, 79% vs. 52%, 90% vs. 85%, 96% vs.72%, 69% vs.54%, 35% vs.22%, respectively (p<0.05). Fifty six percentages of students answered correctly the FAST message.
Conclusions:
Stroke education by using our homemade comic book and animated cartoon improved knowledge about stroke among junior high school students.
Effects of Stroke Education of Junior High School Students on Stroke Knowledge of Their Parents