Knowledge of thrombolytic therapy for acute ischemic stroke among community residents in western urban China.

Juan Yang,Shu Ou,Shuqun Chen,Jian Wang,Min Zheng,Yingying Cao,Jie Zhang,Ni Wang,Muzamil Ahmad

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0107892

Abstract

Background and PurposeThrombolytic therapy rate for acute ischemic stroke remains low, and improving public awareness of thrombolytic therapy may be helpful to reduce delay and increase chances of thrombolytic therapy. Our purpose was to survey the level of knowledge about thrombolytic therapy for acute ischemic stroke among community residents in Yuzhong district, Chongqing, China.MethodsIn 2011, a population-based face-to-face interview survey was conducted in Yuzhong district, Chongqing. A total of 1500 potential participants aged ≥18 years old were selected using a multi-stage sampling method.ResultsA total of 1101 participants completed the survey. Only 23.3% (95% CI = 20.8 to 25.8) were aware of thrombolytic therapy for acute ischemic stroke, of whom 59.9% (95% CI = 53.9 to 65.9) knew the time window. Awareness of thrombolytic therapy was higher among young people, those with higher levels of education and household income, those with health insurance, and those who knew all 5 stroke warning signs, while awareness of the time window was higher among those aged 75 years or older. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that awareness of thrombolytic therapy was independently associated with age, education level, health insurance and knowledge of stroke warning signs (P<0.05).ConclusionsIn this population-based survey the community residents have poor awareness of thrombolytic therapy for acute ischemic stroke.

Highlights

Recombinant tissue plasminogen activator has been proven to be the most effective therapy for ischemic stroke [1]
Some studies have found that knowledge of specific stroke warning signs resulted in increases in the odds of activate emergency medical services (EMS), but the association between knowledge and the intention to activate EMS was weak in population-based studies [8,9,10,11,12,13] or in clinical patients with stroke symptoms [14,15,16,17,18]
Awareness of thrombolytic therapy was significantly associated with the knowledge of stroke warning signs

Summary

Introduction

Recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) has been proven to be the most effective therapy for ischemic stroke [1]. Less than 5% of acute ischemic stroke patients received thrombolytic therapy in China and other countries [2,3,4,5]. Various studies have shown that pre-hospital delay is the single most important reason for why patients with acute stroke do not receive rt-PA treatment [4,5,6]. Some studies have showed that public awareness of stroke related knowledge has increased in recent years, but delays in stroke treatment remain prevalent, which indicates increasing public awareness of stroke warning signs may be insufficient to reduce pre-hospital delay [19,20,21,22]. Thrombolytic therapy rate for acute ischemic stroke remains low, and improving public awareness of thrombolytic therapy may be helpful to reduce delay and increase chances of thrombolytic therapy. Our purpose was to survey the level of knowledge about thrombolytic therapy for acute ischemic stroke among community residents in Yuzhong district, Chongqing, China

Methods

Results

Conclusion