Systematic review of mass media interventions designed to improve public recognition of stroke symptoms, emergency response and early treatment

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Helen Rodgers¹  Gary A Ford¹  Richard G Thomson²  Jan Lecouturier²  Martin White²  Madeleine J Murtagh³ 

[1] Institute for Ageing and Health (Stroke Research Group), Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK;Institute of Health and Society, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK;Medical and Social Care Education, Leicester University, Leicester, UK;

关键词: Emergency Response;    Random Digit Dialling;    Stroke Symptom;    Interrupted Time Series;    Mass Media Campaign;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-10-784

 received in 2010-07-02, accepted in 2010-12-23,  发布年份 2010

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundMass media interventions have been implemented to improve emergency response to stroke given the emergence of effective acute treatments, but their impact is unclear.MethodsSystematic review of mass media interventions aimed at improving emergency response to stroke, with narrative synthesis and review of intervention development.ResultsTen studies were included (six targeted the public, four both public and professionals) published between 1992 and 2010. Only three were controlled before and after studies, and only one had reported how the intervention was developed. Campaigns aimed only at the public reported significant increase in awareness of symptoms/signs, but little impact on awareness of need for emergency response. Of the two controlled before and after studies, one reported no impact on those over 65 years, the age group at increased risk of stroke and most likely to witness a stroke, and the other found a significant increase in awareness of two or more warning signs of stroke in the same group post-intervention. One campaign targeted at public and professionals did not reduce time to presentation at hospital to within two hours, but increased and sustained thrombolysis rates. This suggests the campaign had a primary impact on professionals and improved the way that services for stroke were organised.ConclusionsCampaigns aimed at the public may raise awareness of symptoms/signs of stroke, but have limited impact on behaviour. Campaigns aimed at both public and professionals may have more impact on professionals than the public. New campaigns should follow the principles of good design and be robustly evaluated.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Lecouturier et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.