Effect of Community Education Program on Stroke Symptoms and Treatment on School and College Students from South India: A Longitudinal Observational Study.

Community awareness regarding stroke signs, risk factors, and actions that help reduce the risk and complications of stroke is poorly addressed, as it is thought to be the best approach to control and prevent stroke. Aim: To establish the awareness of stroke and its management among high school and college students using an educational intervention. A questionnaire was administered to students from five high schools and four colleges with different areas of focus, (arts, science and commerce), types (public, semi-public and private), and economic locations before and after an educational lecture on stroke. The lecture covered the following elements: stroke definition, signs, risk factors, actions, time window for thrombolytic therapy, and types of rehabilitation interventions. This study included 1036 participants, of whom 36.3% were male and 56.4% were high school students, and the mean age was 17.15 ± 1.29 (15-22) years. Before the lecture, 147 participants were unaware of a single sign of stroke, and 124 did not know the risk factors. After the intervention, 439 participants knew four signs of stroke, and 196 knew 12 risk factors. Female students had better knowledge about stroke signs (odds ratio (OR), 3.08; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 2.15-4.43). Hypertension (52.7%) and weakness (59.85%) were the most known signs and risk factors. The proportion of students who selected traditional medicine as the mode of treatment decreased from 34.75% to 8.59% after the lecture. Other rehabilitation methods (e.g., physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and counseling) were chosen by more than 80% of the students. The results of the current study showed that the awareness on stroke risk factors and management among the school and college students can be significantly improved with regular educational interventions, and therefore stroke can be prevented to some extent.

The Comparison between Isokinetic Knee Muscles Strength in the Ipsilateral and Contralateral Limbs and Correlating with Function of Patients with Stroke.

Objective The aim of this study is to compare the isokinetic knee muscles peak torque measurements and proprioception between the affected and intact limbs of patients with stroke, in addition to finding the correlation between knee muscles strength and lower limb function. Methods Twelve patients with stroke (mean age 64.33 ± 6.140 years), with 3 to 7 months poststroke who can walk 25 feet independently without using or using assistive devices and full passive range of motion were included in the study. Biodex isokinetic dynamometer was used for measuring isokinetic strength at 90°/s, 120°/s, and 150°/s and isometric strength at 60°/s in both flexors and extensors of the knee, whereas proprioception was measured at 45°/s knee flexion, all for affected and intact limbs. Functional measurements were assessed using the Fugl-Meyer Assessment for Lower Limb scale and Barthel Index (BI). Results The differences shown were found to be statistically significant between affected and intact limbs in isokinetic 90°/s flexion ( p = 0.005), extension ( p = 0.0013), and isometric at 60°/s flexion ( p < 0.0001) knee muscle strengths and also the proprioception ( p = 0.05). Significant positive correlation was found between isokinetic affected side knee flexion at 90°/s ( r = 0.903) with BI ( r = 0.704). Conclusion There is a significant difference in peak torque measurements between affected and normal lower limbs of poststroke patients, as well as a significant correlation between the knee strength and lower limb functions. Furthermore, it can also be concluded that the differences in knee proprioception between the affected and intact limbs were shown to be significant.