UAB Department of Emergency Medicine Clinical Instructor Erin Shufflebarger, M.D., recently published “Educational Intervention in the Emergency Department to Address Disparities in Stroke Knowledge” in the Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases.
According to Stroke.org, stroke is the number five cause of death and a leading cause of disability in the United States. Shufflebarger and her colleagues from the Department of Neurosurgery and the Department of Neurology are looking to change that in the southeast through educating high-risk patients.
Researchers aimed to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of an emergency department-based educational intervention aimed at increasing stroke awareness and preparedness among a disproportionately high-risk group, specifically, Black patients.
The team of researchers provided about 100 patients with stroke educational materials, in the form of a video, written brochure and verbal counseling. The team measured patients’ pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention, and at one-month post-intervention knowledge of the disease.
Overall, researchers concluded that an emergency department-based stroke education can result in improved knowledge among this focused demographic. Researchers note that UAB as a study site has solid potential to implement and study future educational interventions to address disparities in stroke knowledge.
Other authors included:
- Lauren A. Walter, M.D., Department of Emergency Medicine
- Toby I. Gropen, M.D., Department of Neurology
- Tracy E. Madsen, M.D., Department of Emergency Medicine, Alpert Medical School of Brown University
- Mark R. Harrigan, M.D., Department of Neurosurgery
- Ronald M. Lazar, M.D., Department of Neurology
- Jamie Bice, M.D., Department of Neurology
- Cassidy S. Baldwin, Heersink School of Medicine
- Michael J. Lyerly, M.D., Department of Neurology
To read the entire study and its methods, click here.