Abstract
BACKGROUND: Awareness of stroke is important for appropriate and timely stroke prevention and management. OBJECTIVE: To assess the level of awareness about the risk factors, signs, and appropriate responses for stroke among university employees in Rwanda. METHODS: We employed a quantitative descriptive cross-sectional approach. We involved 92 participants, and a self-administered questionnaire to collect data. We computed descriptive statistics and used the Chi-Square test to assess any differences in stroke awareness. RESULTS: We found that 12% and 15.2% of the participants were not aware of any risk factor and warning sign of stroke respectively. Regarding the reaction in case a warning sign of stroke was noticed, 9.8% of the participants indicated that they would do nothing or advise the victim to take rest at home. The limited awareness was significantly higher in the administrative than academic employees for both risk factors (p=0.002) and warning signs (p=0.006), but not for the appropriate responses to stroke (p=0.426). CONCLUSION: A significant proportion of the participants were not aware of any stroke risk factor, warning sign and appropriate responses. It is important to conduct further similar studies and implement stroke education interventions in university communities.