Emergency medical services-based community stroke education: pilot results from a novel approach.

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Although previous studies using mass media have demonstrated successful public stroke awareness campaigns, they may have been too costly for smaller communities to implement. The goal of this study was to investigate if a novel emergency medical services (EMS) -sponsored community awareness campaign could increase public stroke awareness. METHODS: This was a pre- and postintervention study with 2 phases conducted between August 2005 and July 2007. During Phase I, strategic placement of stroke education media by EMS personnel was implemented in one county over a 2-year period. Five random-digit, standardized phone surveys measuring stroke awareness were conducted with ..