Young Stroke Prevention Program for University Lecturers with Risk Factors via Smartphone Application

Abstract

The major risk factors for young stroke patients were hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, waist circumference, and body mass index. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a young stroke prevention program for university lecturers via using a smartphone application. Research design was a quasi-experimental research one-group pretest-posttest design with using multistage random sampling. The study population were Kasetsart university lecturers (n = 21) with risk factors for stroke, age between 20 - 45 years old. The 13 weeks program involved sending each subject weekly via a smart phone application information on stroke education, nutrition management and basic knowledge of exercise. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the general characteristics, Inferential statistics to analyze the average scores pre-test and post-test, with stroke knowledge, weight, waist, body mass index (BMI), blood pressure level, attitude, and risk behavior were determined using a paired t-test statistic. The post-test results from the 21 respondents who participated indicated their knowledge level of stroke education was significantly higher than the pre-exposure, with mean pre-exposure and post-exposure scores of 7.81 and 9.10, respectively. Furthermore, body weight, waist size, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and body mass index, were significantly lower by the end of the program. However, no significant differences were found for attitude nor for the subject behavior regarding risk factors of a stroke. This program can act as the guideline to reduce the incidence of young stroke by reducing risk factors and managing stroke prevention for university lecturers with risk factors of stroke.