Mnemonic utilization in stroke education: FAST and BEFAST adoption by certified comprehensive stroke centers.
Front Neurol
; 15: 1359131, 2024.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38533413
ABSTRACT
Introduction:
Symptom recognition and timely access to treatment are critical components of acute stroke care systems. Two mnemonics widely used in public educational campaigns for recognizing stroke symptoms include FAST (Face-Arm-Speech-Time) and BEFAST (Balance-Eyes-Face-Arm Speech-Time). The FAST mnemonic can miss up to 14% of strokes. BEFAST includes common posterior circulation stroke symptoms and has been implemented by several Comprehensive Stroke Centers (CSCs).Methods:
We sought to analyze the pattern of public educational materials available on the websites of US CSCs. The Joint Commission (JC) quality check website compiles a list containing the names and locations of the country's 217 JC-certified CSCs, which was downloaded in August, 2022. Each CSC's website was searched for educational material containing FAST and BEFAST mnemonics for stroke symptom recognition.Results:
The FAST mnemonic was listed by 35% of CSCs, the BEFAST by 58%, with 7% listing no specific mnemonic. The highest portion of CSCs using BEFAST was in western (65%) and southeastern (63%) states. The highest percentage of CSCs with no listed mnemonic were in the northeastern (14%) and southeastern (13%) states.Conclusion:
Consistency is critical in shaping public health education related to stroke symptoms recognition. Our study suggests further effort is needed to unify the public messaging on stroke recognition.
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Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Front Neurol
Ano de publicação:
2024
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Estados Unidos