Preschool children deliver stroke knowledge to their families with the FAST 112 Heroes educational programme

Abstract

Background: FAST (Face, Arm, Speech, Time) 112 Heroes is an educational programme that delivers information to children and their extended families helping them identify the principal signs of stroke and informing them how to respond appropriately in the event of a stroke. Objectives: To examine the baseline stroke literacy that extended families possess, as well as to assess whether children enrolled in FAST 112 Heroes programme effectively convey stroke knowledge to their extended family. Design: Field trial. Setting: Four schools in Northern Greece – two public and two private. Methods: Parents of preschool aged (5–7 years) children completed stroke knowledge questionnaires, before the programme began and one week after the completion of the FAST 112 Heroes programme. Findings were analysed. Results: In total, 240 parents of kindergarten children (146 women, 94 men; 20–59 years old; mean age: 38.81) completed the pre-programme questionnaire, whereas only 80 of them (33.33%) completed the post-programme questionnaire. Before the programme started, 30 out of 80 parents (37.5%) recognised the three rudimentary stroke symptoms, compared to 68 out of 80 (85%) after the completion of the programme ( p = .00). Parental awareness of the emergency number 112 and of the FAST acronym before programme implementation was relatively poor. Conclusions: Improvement of stroke knowledge post-implementation was observed in the extended family of preschool children enrolled in the FAST 112 Heroes programme which suggests that the latter delivered stroke information to their families effectively.