Assessment of the Awareness of Warning Signs and Risk Factors of Stroke in a Tertiary Care Hospital of Rawalpindi: A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study

Purpose: Stroke incidence is high all over in the world. It has a list of specific warning signs and risk factors. Awareness of people about those warning signs and risk factors is low especially in third world countries. This study aimed to identify the awareness of people about the warning signs and risk factors of stroke. Methodology: This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed in a tertiary care hospital, Rawalpindi, among one hundred for one year from June 2021 to June 2022. Ethical approval and informed consent were waived before the start of study. Patients’ selection was made via a well-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Convenient sampling technique was also used for enrollment of participants. Data was collected by using a self-designed questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were put into action for the data analysis. Data analysis was carried out by SPSS version 25.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). Findings: The warning sign of the stroke about which most of the people were aware was sudden body weakness or numbness (74%) while warning sign about which people were least aware was sudden difficulty in seeing objects by one or both eyes (29%). The most common identified risk factor in people was hypertension (70%) for stroke while least common identified risk factor was family history of stroke (36%). In short, this study indicates people awareness about the warning signs and risk factors of stroke was not up to the mark in study population. Recommendation: There is need to increase the awareness level of people about the warning signs and risk factors of the stroke. This could lead to timely and effective management of stroke and its prevention as well.