Mass Media Intervention in Western Norway Aimed at Improving Public Recognition of Stroke, Emergency Response, and Acute Treatment

Background This study evaluates the effect of a mass media intervention (MMI) on the number of admissions to the emergency room (ER) with a suspected acute-onset stroke and on the number of patients treated with intravenous thrombolysis (IVT). The MMI was run for 1 month, with a precampaign month, p...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of stroke and cerebrovascular diseases 2016-06, Vol.25 (6), p.1467-1472
Main Authors: Advani, Rajiv, MD, Naess, Halvor, MD, PhD, Kurz, Martin, MD, PhD
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
acute treatment
Awareness
awareness campaign
Cardiovascular
Consumer Health Information
Emergency Medical Services
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Health Promotion - methods
Health Services Accessibility
Humans
IVT
Mass Media
Neurology
Norway
Patient Admission
Patient Education as Topic
Program Evaluation
Prospective Studies
Recognition (Psychology)
Stroke
Stroke - diagnosis
Stroke - physiopathology
Stroke - therapy
thrombolysis
Thrombolytic Therapy
Time Factors
Time-to-Treatment
Treatment Outcome
treatment rates
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Background This study evaluates the effect of a mass media intervention (MMI) on the number of admissions to the emergency room (ER) with a suspected acute-onset stroke and on the number of patients treated with intravenous thrombolysis (IVT). The MMI was run for 1 month, with a precampaign month, priming the treatment chain and raising in-hospital awareness. Methods This study conducted a prospective analysis of all patients admitted to the ER before, during, and after the MMI to assess changes in admission rate and IVT treatment rate. The primary end point was to assess any change in the IVT treatment rate, and the secondary end point was to determine the number of acute stroke admissions to the ER within 4.5 hours of symptom onset. Results The MMI resulted in an increased IVT treatment rate from 7.3 to 11.3 patients per month, an increment of 54% ( P  = .002). This also resulted in IVT treatment percentages as high as 42%. The number of suspected acute stroke admissions to the ER increased from 37.3 to 72.8 patients per month, a 97% increase ( P  
ISSN:1052-3057
1532-8511
DOI:10.1016/j.jstrokecerebrovasdis.2016.02.026