Awareness of Stroke among University Employees in Kigali, Rwanda: A Cross Sectional Study

Background Awareness of stroke is important for appropriate and timely stroke prevention and management. Objective To assess the level of awareness about the risk factors, signs, and appropriate responses for stroke among university employees in Rwanda. Methods We employed a quantitative descriptive cross-sectional approach. We involved 92 participants, and a self-administered questionnaire to collect data. We computed descriptive statistics and used the Chi-Square test to assess any differences in stroke awareness. Results We found that 12% and 15.2% of the participants were not aware of any risk factor and warning sign of stroke respectively. Regarding the reaction in case a warning sign of stroke was noticed, 9.8% of the participants indicated that they would do nothing or advise the victim to take rest at home. The limited awareness was significantly higher in the administrative than academic employees for both risk factors (p=0.002) and warning signs (p=0.006), but not for the appropriate responses to stroke (p=0.426). Conclusion A significant proportion of the participants were not aware of any stroke risk factor, warning sign and appropriate responses. It is important to conduct further similar studies and implement stroke education interventions in university communities

Impact of maternal periodontitis on preterm birth and low biirth weight in babies: results of a scoping review

Background Periodontitis has been documented as public health concern but its association with preterm and low birth weight remains uncertain, thus the objective of this scoping review is to summarize the most recent published evidence related to the impact of periodontitis on preterm birth and low birth weight in order to improve public awareness and to inform policies for oral health during pregnancy. Methods Hinari, PubMed, and Google Scholar were searched to acquire the published literature. The retrieved studies included cross-sectional, case control studies and randomized controlled trials with available full text published in English from 2008 to 2019. Results After combining the key words, 333 articles were identified with only 133 eligible articles published from 2008 to 2019. After reviewing the available 50 full text articles, duplicates were removed and 15 studies fully met the inclusion criteria. There were 13 articles that supported the association between maternal periodontitis and preterm low birth weight while 2 found no evidence to support the association. Conclusion The results of this scoping review contribute to an increasing body of evidence to support the hypothesis that maternal periodontal disease may be a risk factor for preterm delivery and low birth weight.