Role of Awareness Activities in Mega-Events

Abstract

Abstract Background Cardiovascular diseases remain to be one of the leading causes of death worldwide. There are some well-established risk factors such as a genetic disposition (hereditary), hypertension (high blood pressure), diabetes mellitus, obesity, high cholesterol level, poor dietary habits, inactive lifestyle, and smoking. The Egyptian direction is to invest in developing educational programs on cardiovascular diseases for the whole community and particularly for women. This initiative is echoed by experts who call for urgent action to improve care, prevent disease and increase awareness of cardiovascular diseases generally and within the women community. The Egyptian community is in great need to public awareness campaigns about cardiovascular diseases especially myocardial infarction and stroke. The CardioVascular Research, Education, Prevention foundation (CVREP) in collaboration with Stent Save a Life (SSL) initiative Egypt and the American Heart Association (AHA) and its initiative “Go Red For Women”, initiated a very successful awareness campaign for physicians and for public during the mega cardiovascular conference CardioAlex.21. ICOM Group (International Center for Organization and Marketing) in collaboration with Expand created a comprehensive public awareness program during CardioAlex.21 held in Alexandria, Egypt during the period 01 – 04 June, 2021. Aim Building awareness to the community to the signs and the “must take actions” in cardiovascular emergencies, as heart attacks. Methods A very creative campaign was held at the last day of CardioAlex.21 in Alexandria, Egypt, in which, ICOM and Expand teams organized a Marathon (Run) followed by an educational lecture for physicians and a session for public along with screening clinics stations for all attendees to have an onsite check up on their blood pressure and blood glucose level. “GO RED FOR WOMEN”, addressed the message for women to raise the awareness of cardiovascular risks and a very informative discussion was held. The audience questions were answered by SSL Board who moderated the session on a one-to-one story telling technique which made the sessions very interesting. Data was collected from persons who attended the session representing the Egyptian society. Results Eighty persons attended the awareness day, 54% of which were middle-aged participants with an age mean of 50 years old. 60% were women, 55% completed secondary education or more and 77% of them reported to have heard about heart attacks while, more than half stated they knew someone who had it. This campaign raised the public awareness regarding cardiovascular disease and how a minute is life changing, knowing how to react if someone experienced one or more of the heart attack symptoms as well as the proper management of MI patients. Also, the healthy lifestyle after undergoing a PPCI procedure was discussed.