Knowledge regarding risk factors, warning signs, and immediate response to stroke among patients attending general outpatient department in a selected multispeciality hospital

Background: The stroke burden in India is very high, and its incidence has been rising over the past few decades. Acute stroke is a time-sensitive emergency and requires identifying warning signs and seeking medical attention to prevent mortality and morbidity. Knowing its risk factors, accurately identifying warning signs, and seeking medical attention within a timeline is challenging to avoid secondary complications. Objective: To assess the knowledge of risk factors, warning signs, and immediate response to stroke among patients attending the general outpatient department (OPD) and find out the relationship of knowledge with selected socio-demographic and clinical variables of the patients. Material and Methods: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted on 200 patients attending the general outpatient department (OPD) recruited consecutively after meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Demographic profile, clinical profile, and knowledge questionnaire on risk factors, warning signs, and response to stroke were used to gather the data. Consent was taken from the patient after obtaining the ethical clearance. Results: Nearly half of the patients (43.5%) had very good knowledge, and almost the same number (43%) had good knowledge about stroke risk factors. The participants identified the most common risk factors for stroke: hypertension (77%) and excessive alcohol consumption (73%). Most patients (92.5%) have poor knowledge about warning signs, and only 7% had adequate knowledge. The most common stroke warning sign described by participants was 'confusion and slurred speech' identified by 17%. All patients were aware of seeking medical attention within 72 hours. Still, none of them knew about the golden timeline (3 hours), its importance, and thrombolytic therapy as a selective stroke treatment during the golden timeline. There is no association between participants' knowledge of stroke risk factors and warning signs and socioeconomic, clinical, and source of information variables (p<.05). Conclusion: Most patients have better knowledge about risk factors but lack warning signs and immediate response to stroke irrespective of their socioeconomic, clinical, and source of receiving stroke-related information. Hospitals must galvanize the efforts to disseminate stroke-related information involving nursing staff to organize different educational strategies in OPDs.