Factors associated with decision time to seek care in the face of ischemic stroke

To verify the association between sociodemographic, clinical, environmental, cognitive, and emotional factors and the decision time of people with ischemic stroke to seek a health service after the onset of symptoms or wake up stroke.

Cross-sectional study carried out from March to October 2019, with 304 patients, in a public hospital, a reference in neurology. Data obtained through interview and from medical records. Decision time was analyzed as a geometric mean. In the bivariate and multivariate analyses, linear regression was used and the Akaike Information Criterion was used to select the best model. Statistical significance of 5% was adopted.

The geometric mean of decision time was 0.30h (95% CI 0.23-0.39). The final model explained this time in 41%, showing an increase of 0.5 min for people with arterial hypertension; 10.8 min for those who waited for symptoms to improve; 1.4 min for those who were alone at the onset of symptoms; 3.9 min for those at home; 3.2 min for the ones at work; and 2.1 for those on the street/public space.

The mean decision time for seeking a health service was high and influenced by clinical, environmental, cognitive, and emotional variables. The results guide nurses regarding health education.