[Stroke. Public knowledge and information sources]

Modern stroke care requires urgent initiation of treatment. Thus, rapid recognition of cerebrovascular incidents by medical laypersons is mandatory. Accordingly, public knowledge of stroke warning signs and adequate action is very important. Little is known about the level of knowledge among the general public and use and effect of various sources of information. In first aid training programs conducted by the St. John Ambulance in Bavaria, participants were questioned if and from what source they already got information about stroke. Additionally they were asked to list stroke warning signs and to describe what a stroke is. Altogether 532 subjects filled out the questionnaire; 419 stated that they already had heard something about stroke (53.7% male, mean age 29.4 years). Sources of information were: personal experience with affected patients (30.1%), TV/radio (22.1%), newspaper (18.4%) and relatives/friends (17.2%). Subjects with prior information listed significantly more warning signs/symptoms compared with those without previous information (1.76 vs. 0.63; p<0.01). Participants using the source "TV/radio" named fewer warning signs than those using the sources "newspaper" or "affected patients" (p<0.01). Prior information was effective in enhancing knowledge about stroke. However, we found significant differences related to the source of information. Since experiences gathered from personal contact with affected patients were stated most frequently, leading to better knowledge than information gained from mass media, subsequently acute care and rehabilitation would be a good opportunity for providing information about stroke to proxies and visitors of the patients.