Stroke Education Affects Hospital Arrival Times
Educating the public on the warning symptoms of stroke can make a difference in how soon a victim gets to the hospital, according to two studies presented at an American Heart Association conference this month. The studies confirm the need to expand public health outreach campaigns to specifically address stroke symptoms and the need to get victims to the hospital within three hours of stroke onset.
The two studies by the Central Illinois Neuroscience Foundation (CINF) in Bloomington, Ill., and the University of Mississippi (UM) in Jackson found that public health campaigns can reduce hospital arrival times. Study highlights include:
- Prior to CINF's education campaign, arrival time after stroke onset was more than 16.4 hours. After the campaign, stroke victims arrived in an average of 8 hours.
- Prior to UM's outreach effort which involved pre-and post-screening tests and targeted the African American community, 27 percent of participants did not know that a stroke occurs in the brain, 29 percent could not name any signs or symptoms and 56 percent said they would not call 911 if a stroke occurred. Afterward, 95 percent knew that a stroke involved the brain, 76 percent could name three risk factors and 93 percent said they would call 911 if symptoms developed.
(American Heart Association, 212/878-5900; http://www.americanheart.org)
Teens Need More Medical Abstinence Counseling
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is calling on physicians to take a more active role in pregnancy prevention by advising teens to remain abstinent by joining parents, schools, religious institutions and social agencies in outreach and counseling initiatives. For teens who are sexually active, the organization suggests that doctors help ensure they have information about and access to contraception.
AAP recently issued new guidelines that address this issue, with compelling statistics aimed at getting physicians to help slow the rate of teenage pregnancy. Highlights include:
- Approximately 1 million teens in the U.S. become pregnant every year, with 51 percent giving birth, 35 percent obtaining an abortion and 14 percent having a miscarriage or a stillborn child.
- The U.S. has the highest teen birth rate among developed countries.
- Approximately 56 percent of girls and 73 percent of boys report having sex before age 18, and 50 percent of teen pregnancies occur within the first six months of sexual activity.
(American Academy of Pediatrics, 847/228-5005; http://www.aap.org)
Health Info Too Difficult
Medical information pertinent to health coverage for the elderly is often too difficult to understand, according to a new study by the Prudential Center for Health Care Research in Atlanta. The study found that 33.9 percent of English-speaking respondents and 53.9 percent of Spanish-speaking respondents had inadequate or marginal health literacy.
Key areas of poor comprehension include:
- Prescription instructions;
- Blood sugar test results; and
- Medicaid rights and responsibilities.
The study, which involved 3,260 new Medicare enrollees in Cleveland, Houston, South Florida and Tampa, indicate a need for more targeted healthcare campaigns that address low health literacy particularly for those who suffer diabetes, asthma and hypertension.
Patients with low health literacy are more likely to be hospitalized than those with adequate health literacy. Individuals who rated their health as fair/poor, for instance, were twice as likely to have inadequate health literacy compared with individuals who rated their health as good/excellent at 38.7 percent and 19.2 percent, respectively.
The study is featured in the Feb. 10 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.
(Prudential Center for Health Care Research, Kevin Heine, 973/902-7455)