Abstract:
Background: Stroke occurs when blood supply to a part of the brain is interrupted. It is the
third most common cause of death in the world and 14–46% of stroke patients have DM. Lack of
knowledge and inability to correctly identify stroke warning symptoms are major causes of
stroke burdens and complications. stroke warning symptoms knowledge has a direct impact on
stroke prevention in DM patients, where their level of knowledge is not well known in Ethiopia.
Objective: To assess knowledge of stroke warning symptoms and associated factors among
adult patients with type II diabetes mellitus who were attending chronic clinic at public hospitals
in West shewa, Oromia, Ethiopia, 2022.
Methods: An institution-based cross-sectional study was employed among randomly selected
238 patients with type II diabetes having follow up at hospitals found in West Shewa, Oromia,
Ethiopia. Data was collected using Kobo tool box and exported to SPSS version 25.0 for
analysis. Bivariate binary logistic regression analysis was used to assess the presence of
association between independent variables and outcome variable and variables with P-value <
0.25 entered into multivariable logistic regression. Presence and level of significant association
was determined using odd ratio with 95% CI and p-value < 0.05.
Results: A total of 234 patients fully responded to this study with a response rate of 98.3%.
Among the study participants, only 17.9% (95% CI-13.3%, 23.5%) of them had good knowledge
of stroke warning symptoms. Weakness on one side of the body was identified by 86 (25.4%) of
the respondents, followed by facial weakness 74 (21.8%). Urban residence (AOR 3.92; 95% CI
1.02-15.0), government worker (AOR 5.21; 95% CI 1.19-22.69), engage in physical exercise
(AOR 6.09; 95% CI 1.65-22.41), presence of other chronic illness (AOR 5.63; 95% CI 1.55-
20.42) and know somebody diagnosed with stroke (AOR 8.49; 95% CI 3.02-23.91) shows
statistically significant association with knowledge of warning symptoms of stroke.
Conclusion: In the present study knowledge of stroke warning symptoms among the diabetes
mellitus patients were low. Therefore, the concerned bodies and stakeholders should have to
focus on increasing knowledge of patients with type II DM about stroke warning symptoms.
