1. Decision Delay Is a Significant Contributor to Prehospital Delay for Stroke Symptoms.
- Author
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Potisopha, Wiphawadee, Vuckovic, Karen M., DeVon, Holli A., Park, Chang G., Phutthikhamin, Nichapatr, and Hershberger, Patricia E.
- Subjects
STROKE risk factors ,HYPERTENSION ,STROKE ,SAMPLE size (Statistics) ,SCIENTIFIC observation ,RESEARCH evaluation ,PATIENT decision making ,ISCHEMIC stroke ,TIME ,RESEARCH methodology ,CROSS-sectional method ,ATRIAL fibrillation ,COGNITION ,MAGNETIC resonance imaging ,TREATMENT delay (Medicine) ,RISK assessment ,EMERGENCY medical services ,HEALTH behavior ,STROKE patients ,GLASGOW Coma Scale ,DESCRIPTIVE statistics ,QUESTIONNAIRES ,RESEARCH funding ,REPERFUSION ,COMPUTED tomography ,DATA analysis software ,ACUTE diseases ,SYMPTOMS - Abstract
Prehospital delay after stroke symptom onset is a primary barrier to eligibility for reperfusion therapies. Decision delay is an understudied contributor to prehospital delay. We aimed to explore decision delay as a component of prehospital delay. For this correlational study, 170 Thai acute stroke patients were interviewed to explore their treatment-seeking decision factors: prior stroke knowledge, onset context, and cognitive, emotional, and behavioral factors. Participants' mean age was 61.2 years, and 46% were women. Median decision delay and prehospital delay times were 120 and 372 minutes. Decision delay represented 49% of prehospital delays. Factors shortening decision delay were atrial fibrillation, prior stroke knowledge, perceived cause of symptoms as stroke, perceived severity of symptoms, and advice from bystanders to seek treatment. In contrast, seeking support from others and self-treatment affected prolonged decision delay. Shortening decision delay, often under the patient or bystander control, can reduce overall prehospital delay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2023
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