Awareness and Attitude of College Students on Stroke and Its Change after the Educational Programme

Dr. Ranju Rani Das, Dr. Unmona Borgohain Saikia

Stroke risk factors, educational programme, warning signs, stroke prevention

Introduction: Stroke is one of the leading causes of death and disability in India. Stroke is increasing in young population mainly because of the lifestyle. The objective of the study was to assess awareness and attitude of college students regarding Stroke and the effect of educational programme in changing their awareness and attitude.

Methodology: A one group pretest-posttest study was conducted among 504 college students of selected ten government colleges of Kamrup metro, Assam. Students were selected by using convenience sampling technique. Semi structured questionnaire and 4 points Likert scale were used for measuring awareness and attitude of students towards Stroke which was done by self-report techniques.

Results: Out of 504 responded, majority 457(90.7%) had inadequate awareness, remaining 47(9.3%) had moderately adequate awareness before educational programme and 18 (3.6%) had adequate awareness, 375 (74.4%)   had moderately adequate awareness and 111 (22%) had inadequate awareness after educational programme.  Majority 475(94.2%) of the responded had moderately favorable attitude, 11 (2.2%) had unfavorable attitude and 18 (3.6%) had favorable attitude before educational programme and 209 (41.5%) responded had favorable attitude, 295 (58.5%) had moderately favorable attitude after educational programme on Stroke. Positive correlation was found between awareness and attitude. Significant association was found between pretest level of awareness with educational qualification of the responded.

Conclusion: Study revealed that college students are not having adequate awareness regarding stroke. Moderately favorable attitude was found. Sensitization and educational programme is the utmost important to prevent and reduce mortality from stroke.