Evaluation of stroke awareness and risk factor prevalence among students at a public sector university in Quetta

Background and Objective:  Stroke is the leading cause of death and disability. Improving stroke knowledge among medical students will help to improve stroke care and its prevention. This study aims to evaluate the prevalence of risk factors and stroke awareness among university students. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among students at Sardar Bahadur Khan Women's University in Quetta. An eleven-question multiple-choice survey was administered to assess participants' knowledge of stroke-related concepts. The initial study was conducted using descriptive statistics. Additionally, a supplementary screening for common risk factors linked to stroke was included in the study, which involved blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol measures. Data were coded, entered into SPSS, and screened for missing values and outliers. Descriptive analyses were conducted, including frequency tables and graphical representations using pie charts. Results: In our survey of 255 female students, the vast majority (94.9%) correctly classified stroke as a brain disease, whereas a lesser percentage (1.6%) confused it with heart (0.8%), kidney (0.8%), or lung diseases (0.8%) problems. Notably, 74.1% of participants were aware of the precise cause of stroke, but 58.8% identified arm and leg weakness as a symptom. Other symptoms that were recognized by participants included difficulties speaking (25.5%), headache (9.8%), vertigo (2.4%), and chest pain (3.4%). Moreover, 94.9% of participants recognized that stroke is preventable. The most often diagnosed risk factor was hypertension (58.4%), which was followed by high cholesterol (11.8%), diabetes (9.0%), migraine (8.2%), advanced age (7.8%), and smoking (4.7%). Conclusion Our study shows a very good knowledge about stroke among the students at Sardar Bahadur Khan University but our results are biased due to addressing only an educated group of people.