Background and Purpose:
To examine whether the baseline stroke knowledge of children in schools participating in our Hip Hop Stroke program has changed since its inception in late 2005.
Methods:
We gathered baseline stroke knowledge surveys from 2,839 students enrolled in the Hip Hop Stroke program from November 2005 through April 2014 with median annual enrollment of 344 (range 55 to 582). All students were enrolled in New York City public schools, in 4th through 6th grade. Students who left ≥3 questions blank were discarded; other blank answers were treated as missing. Data were analyzed using binomial, Chi-Square and regression analysis (SPSS v22.0).
Results:
Overall there was no consistent trend in baseline stroke knowledge by academic year. Overall, 28.4% of students recognized stroke occurred in the brain (expected value 25% [p<0.001], range from 13.8-61.2% for any given year). With stroke diagnosis provided, 85.5% of 1436 students knew to call 911, whereas only 59.6% of 1243 students knew to call 911 when given a hypothetical real-world stroke symptom scenario without stroke diagnosis included, p<0.001. For a composite assessment of knowledge including 4 stroke symptoms (blurred vision, facial droop, sudden headache, slurred speech), 1 distractor (chest pain), and urgent action plan (call 911), asked consistently since 2006, overall students scored a mean 2.86 (95% CI: 2.80-2.92; possible range 0-6, expected value 2.75), with annual scores ranging from 2.54-3.56.
Conclusion:
Stroke knowledge among elementary school students remains low and has not appreciably changed during the last 9 years. The use of hypothetical real-world stroke symptom scenarios may more accurately reflect intent to call 911 for stroke than the use of questions in which stroke diagnosis is given.
Exertional Heat Stroke Knowledge and Management among Emergency Medical Service Providers