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Knowledge, attitude, and practice of stroke among high school students in Nepal

2016; Medknow; Volume: 7; Issue: 04 Linguagem: Inglês

10.4103/0976-3147.188635

0976-3147

Lekhjung Thapa, Nooma Sharma, Ramesh Sharma Poudel, Tirtha Raj Bhandari, Riwaj Bhagat, Asis Shrestha, Shakti Shrestha, Dipendra Khatiwada, Louis R. Caplan,

Stroke Rehabilitation and Recovery

Baseline stroke knowledge in a targeted population is indispensable to promote the effective stroke education. We report the baseline knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of high school students with respect to stroke from Nepal.A self-structured questionnaire survey regarding KAP about stroke was conducted in high school students of 33 schools of Bharatpur, Nepal. Descriptive statistics including Chi-square test was used, and the significant variables were subjected to binary logistic regression.Among 1360 participants, 71.1% had heard or read about stroke; 30.2% knew someone with stroke. 39.3% identified brain as the organ affected. Sudden onset limb/s weakness/numbness (72%) and hypertension (74%) were common warning symptom and risk factor identified. 88.9% would take stroke patients to a hospital. Almost half participants (55.5%) felt ayurvedic treatment be effective. 44.8% felt stroke as a hindrance to a happy life and 86.3% believed that family care was helpful for early recovery. Students who identified at least one risk factor were 3.924 times (P < 0.001, confidence interval [CI] = 1.867-8.247) or those who identified at least one warning symptom were 2.833 times (P ≤ 0.023, CI = 1.156-6.944) more likely to take stroke patients to a hospital.KAP of high school Nepalese students regarding stroke was satisfactory, and the students having knowledge about the risk factors and warning symptoms were more likely to take stroke patients to a hospital. However, a few misconceptions persisted.