Awareness of stroke warning signs and associated factors among community residents in Huanggang, China: A cross-sectional study

Stroke is the leading cause of disability and death in China. Despite efforts by the Chinese government to prioritize this public health issue, Chinese residents face significant challenges related to poor awareness of the signs of stroke and delays in seeking treatment. This study aims to explore stroke awareness and associated factors among residents of one community in China. A cross-sectional design was performed on 760 residents in Huanggang, China, selected by the cluster sampling method. A self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Multiple logistic regression was applied to investigate factors influencing stroke awareness. The results revealed that most participants were male (65.0%) with a median age of 65 years; more than half (64.7%) had good stroke awareness. After adjusting for other covariates, stroke awareness was significantly positively associated with a history of vascular risk or previous stroke, stroke-related knowledge, stroke prevention behavior, and health belief model (HBM) constructs, including perceived benefits, self-efficacy, perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, and cues to action. However, good stroke awareness was negatively associated with perceived barriers. In conclusion, Huanggang residents had good stroke awareness, influenced by stroke-related knowledge, stroke prevention behavior, the HBM constructs, and other factors. Thus, consideration of these factors is important in developing targeted interventions to help individuals recognize the early symptoms of stroke and improve awareness that such symptoms need to be treated as a medical emergency.