Public Awareness And Knowledge Of Stroke Prevalence In Ghana

The most preventable neurological disease of all is stroke.Many of the known stroke risk factors,including hypertension,high cholesterol,diabetes,heart disease,and smoking,can be avoided either by making healthier lifestyle decisions or through medications.Health measures aimed at reducing morbidity and mortality from strokes will promote a greater understanding of potential risk factors and warning signs of stroke.In low-and middle-income economies such as Ghana,hypertension and other non-communicable diseases are growing risk factors for cardiovascular diseases and strokes,experiencing the effects of rapid population and economic growth.Public education and awareness would significantly help reduce the vulnerability of the population to modifiable risk factors.The World Health Organization(2015)reports that,of the17.7 million people who died in 2015 as a result of cardiovascular diseases(CVDs)were due to stroke,6.7 million of them which is more than 75 percent of the fatalities occurred in low-and middle-income countries such as Ghana.This phenomenon is likely to boost,and it is estimated that around 70% of all mortality globally will be caused by non-communicable diseases by 2030,with the complex and difficult task remaining in low-and middle-income regions of the world.In Ghana,there is currently public awareness of stroke as well as the effects of stroke.The public awareness of stroke risk factors and warning signs is very imperative in the quest to preventing the increase fatalities as a result of the cardiovascular diseases(CVDs).The research attempts to examine the public awareness of stroke in Ghana.It specifically examined public awareness of warning signs and symptoms,risk factors,and management of stroke as well as recommending policies and strategies to increase stroke awareness in Kumasi-Ghana.The study adopted a cross-sectional survey with 250 households in the Kumasi metropolitan Assembly.The study used structured questionnaires to ascertain data and logistics regression analyses to classify predicator’s ability to recognize risk factors and stroke warning signs.However,interview guide was used to examine the causes of stroke and its treatment as well as results.It was revealed that,headache and numbness were the major stroke warning signs acknowledged and cited by respondent.According to the respondents,the commonest variable(factor)associated with risk factors of stroke is ailing to stress which has the highest percentage of74.7%.It is followed by age(63.8%).The least risk factor is diabetes.Severe headache was listed as the familiar warning signs with a percentage rate of 59%,n=130),followed by numbness(N=110,50%),unspecified pain ranked third(N=90,41%).The least warning signs according to the respondent is dizziness(35%).The findings of the logistic regression model analysis,found the following factors to be significantly associated with ability to correctly mention at least 1 stroke risk factor were respondent’s age less than 40 years(OR,1.832;95% CI,1.160-2.893;P 5.009),postgraduate education(OR,2.712;95% CI,1.678-4.382;P,.001),family history of stroke(OR,2.112;95% CI,1.116-3.998;P 5.022),smoking history(OR,2.726;95% CI,1.256-5.919;P 5.011),and previous health education on stroke(OR,1.970;95% CI,1.235-3.142;P 5.004)were linked with greater level of stroke risk factors.The finding shows that,stroke is caused by stress,and some related factors were identified as contributing factor to stress including worry,lack of rest,overloading the brain,bitterness,loneliness,and fear.Though,stroke is seen as the common cause of mortality in Ghana,but the study showed appreciable number of respondent awareness of its risk factors,warnings signs and the fact that it is deadly.This satisfactory was attributed to the sources of information and other imperative factors such as mounting stroke campaign program.Therefore,stroke campaign programs and health education programs should be rigorously mounted in universities,high schools,colleges so as to create the needed awareness of this killer disease,its risk factors and warning signs.Further findings support the analysis and certain policy recommendations with respect to improving stroke prevention,treatment,education and advocacy were discussed.