Stroke 120 or FAST (Face, Arm, Speech, Time): Which is Better in Stroke Awareness Promotion for Older Residents Living in Shanghai?

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BackgroundTo make a parallel comparison regarding the effectiveness of Stroke 120 and FAST (Face, Arm, Speech, Time) in stroke knowledge promotion among community-living older residents in Shanghai. MethodsThis is a prospective community-based study. Between 1 February 2021 and 31 July 2021, we conducted a community-based stroke education program among older residents living in two communities in Minhang district, Shanghai. Residents aged over 60 years were educated with FAST and Stroke 120 separately. We defined the community educated with FAST as FAST-Community, the other one educated with Stroke 120 as Stroke 120-Community. Pre- and post-education survey were collected. The ability to recall the meanings of FAST and Stroke 120 in pre- and post-education survey was compared. The awareness of stroke risk factors and symptoms was also compared. ResultsThere were 466 responders in pre-education survey (231 from FAST-community, 235 from Stroke 120-community) and 456 responders in post-education survey (230 from FAST-community, 226 from Stroke 120-community). The mean age of responders in Stroke 120-community was 76 years (40% male) and in FAST-community was 71 years (52% male). Of the common stroke symptoms, we only found significant improvement in the awareness of Face drop (61.7% versus 34.6%, P<0.001) and Dizziness (45.7% versus 27.7%, P<0.001) in post-education survey for responders living in FAST-community. However, for responders living in Stroke 120-community, significant improvement was observed in all stroke symptoms (all P<0.05). As for the ability to recall the meanings of stroke awareness tools, the number of responders who can recall all the meanings of Stroke 120 increased from 0 in pre-education survey to 44 (21.5%) in post-education survey (P<0.001) for responders living in Stroke 120-community. However, among responders living in FAST-community, only 4 (5%) can recall all the meanings of FAST in post-education survey (5% versus 0%, P = 0.47). In the meantime, the proportion of responders who can recall part or all the meanings of them was also higher in Stroke 120-community in post-education survey. ConclusionAmong community-living older residents in Shanghai, Stroke 120 seems to be more suitable than FAST in stroke knowledge promotion.