Awareness about stroke among high and low risk individuals in Khartoum, Sudan: a cross-sectional study.

INTRODUCTION: stroke causes 10.17% of all deaths in Sudan. Levels of stroke awareness amongst patients in Sudan are unknown. The aim of this study is to assess the level of awareness of stroke risk factors, symptoms and immediate management amongst high and low risk patients. METHODS: using descriptive cross-sectional study, participants of high and low risk groups were recruited from the referral clinics of three tertiary hospitals in Khartoum. Data was collected through interviews using structured questionnaire. Knowledge score was devised to assess the awareness about stroke symptoms, risk factors, and management. RESULTS: of the 286 participants, 150 were females. The mean age was 44.66 years. About 79.4% reported that stroke is preventable. Hypertension was the most identified risk factor (71.6%) while genetics (0.2%) and alcohol (0.2%) were the least identified risk factors. Twenty-seven percent (27.6%) did not know any stroke risk factors, while 32.9% did not know any warning symptoms. Paralysis of one side of the body was the most identified warning symptom (30.7%). The mean awareness score was 21.9 ± 3.4 among the high risk group vs. 22.1 ± 3.6 among the low risk group with no statistically significant difference between the two groups (p = .717). The mean awareness score was statistically associated with the level of education (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: the awareness level was relatively low and not statistically different between high and low risk groups. We recommend the development of an effective educational program for the whole community.

Maternal depression, a hidden predictor for severe acute malnutrition in children aged 6-59 months: a case-control study at Omdurman Paediatrics Teaching Hospital, Sudan.

Malnutrition remains one of the main disabling issues in child health, especially in developing countries. Maternal depression by its related disabilities has been linked with children undernutrition in the studies abroad. Unfortunately, not much is known regarding this issue in Sudan, so this study aims to examine the association between maternal depression and severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in children under 5 years of age. A matched case-control study was conducted in Omdurman Paediatrics Teaching Hospital. Children admitted with SAM were assigned as cases, whereas controls were age- and sex-matched children with normal weight and height admitted in the same hospital. Mothers of both cases and controls were assessed for depression utilising the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 tool. The prevalence of depression among mothers of malnourished children was high (41.5%) compared to the mothers of controls (19.1%). In multivariate logistic regression analyses, the adjusted odds ratio (AOR) of maternal depression were markedly higher in cases than in controls (AOR = 3.09, p = 0.002), as was the odds of below 1-year breastfeeding weaning (AOR = 18.60, p = 0.006) and mother illiteracy (AOR = 2.42 p = 0.031). Furthermore, the analysis found a significant negative association between the occurrence of malnutrition and exclusive breastfeeding (AOR = 0.43, p = 0.015). Maternal depression carries a significant burden in the mothers of children hospitalised with SAM. We strongly recommend routine screening and treatment for depression in childbearing age mothers in the available relative maternal and child health clinics.