Family caregivers of Nigerian-Africans of South Western Nigeria who have suffered a stroke play a significant role in the disease management including taking clinical and non-clinical decisions which may have both direct and indirect effects on the patient's recovery. This decision-making process may be influenced by the knowledge and beliefs of these caregivers about the disease.
This cross-sectional study was carried out to assess the knowledge and beliefs of family caregivers of hospitalised stroke survivors in six tertiary health facilities in South-Western Nigeria about stroke and its management.
Eighty-three caregivers comprising 50 males and 33 females, aged between 17 and 66 years (32.86±10.92) were surveyed using a 39-item questionnaire. Data were collected on their socio-demographic, known clinical history of the patients, knowledge and beliefs of the respondents about stroke.
Respondents were the children (54.2%), spouses (16.9%), and siblings (12.0%) of the post stroke patients. First place of seeking care after the onset of stroke were hospitals (81.9%) and traditional medical practitioners (16.9%). Out of the maximum obtainable score of 14 on knowledge of stroke, 49.4% got less than half score (zero to 6 points), while 4.8% scored between 11 and 14 points. The overall group means score on belief was 3.4 out of the maximum 5.0.
The caregivers had average knowledge about stroke and their beliefs were considerably positive. In spite of this, some caregivers had misconceptions such as “stroke is caused by witches and evil spirits”, “stroke can be sexually transmitted” and “only adults suffer from stroke”. These are important beliefs that should be taken into account while planning management intervention and enlightenment programme to reduce the menace of stroke in this community.
Nigerian-African, Caregivers, Stroke, Knowledge, Belief
