Background/Aims:
South Western Sydney (SWS) is home to a large Vietnamese community, who have a higher stroke risk than Australian-born individuals. Culturally and Linguistically Diverse communities also have lower health literacy. This study aimed to characterise stroke literacy in Vietnamese communities living in SWS and investigate whether culturally tailored education sessions could improve stroke literacy.
Methods:
A prospective interventional study was conducted on 195 participants across three 1.5-hour stroke education workshops. Pre- and post-education surveys were conducted, collecting participant demographics and stroke literacy level. Change in literacy and contributing factors were analysed using Chi-square tests, t-tests and logistic regression.
Results:
Stroke symptoms were recognised by over half of participants [Face:(56.4%), Arms:(66.7%), Speech:(61.5%)], with 52.8% identifying all three whilst 29.2% recognised none. Most participants were confident calling an ambulance (60.0%), aware of diabetes as a risk factor (73.9%) and recognised healthy diet/exercise (82.5%) as protective factors. Post-education, 24.6% recognised more symptoms, 33.1% were more confident calling an ambulance, 32.4% more aware of diabetes mellitus, and 29.8% more aware of diet/exercise. Smaller group size (OR=2.83 [95%CI 1.15-6.96], p=0.024), lower age (OR=0.93 [95%CI 0.87-1.00, p=0.037) and lower baseline literacy (OR=6.38 [95%CI 2.48-16.41], p<0.001) were significantly associated with improved stroke literacy post-education.
Conclusions:
There were mixed levels of stroke literacy in the SWS Vietnamese community, which improved with a single culturally-tailored education session. This study highlights various opportunities for improvement when developing culturally-specific education in future.