Grau de conhecimento de pacientes sobre o acidente vascular cerebral e a necessidade do uso de cartilha educativa para orientação fisioterapêutica

Stroke is a neurological dysfunction of vascular origin that causes physical impairments and disabilities. Brazil leads the statistics stroke mortality among Latin American countries, demonstrating still be a neglected disease in this country. The incidence is related to risk factors and still is great misinformation in our country about stroke, treatment and prophylaxis. The aim of this study was to assess the degree of knowledge about stroke and patients need to use educational booklet for physiotherapy. The sample consisted of 53 patients, 22 females and 31 males, mean age 56.2 ± 10.9 years. Patients were evaluated by completing questionnaires, observing the socio-demographic and clinical aspects, neurological assessment, functional assessment, knowledge of pathology and presenting educational booklet. The data were analyzed using the chi-square test. According to the results, it was observed that the patients had not enough knowledge about the terminology, complications and warning signs of stroke, were not aware and did not perform the proper positioning of the limb and transfers, however, were aware and performed the stretching maneuvers. This reveals the need to implement policies that lead to information about stroke population. Following discharge from outpatient physical therapy using educational booklets with guidelines on positioning, stretching exercises and transfer is important in functional rehabilitation and encouraging independence of the individual affected by stroke