Public Awareness of Stroke Symptoms in Developed and Developing Countries: A Systematic Review.

Introduction: Lack of knowledge about the main clinical manifestations of stroke is a major health problem, which leads to prolongation of the time elapsed from the onset of stroke to hospital admission, late diagnosis and, consequently, delay in the initiation of appropriate treatment. The aim of this review is to investigate the levels of awareness of stroke signs, symptoms and risk factors.

Methods: In this study, all articles from January 1990 to December 2023 were included through searching PubMed, EMBASE, Google Scholar, Scopus and WOS databases. Only articles written in English or Persian were entered. The level of awareness of General public (not patients with stroke and not experts) about the warning signs and symptoms of stroke between developed and developing countries has been compared.

Results: The results of this study have shown that the level of awareness of public in developed countries is not differ compared with developing countries.

Conclusion: Overall, there is no discernible correlation between a country's developmental status and the awareness of stroke symptoms by public. Educational initiatives in schools and media are potential strategies to enhance public knowledge.