Effect of a National Stroke Awareness Campaign on Ambulance call-outs and Paramedic Diagnosis of Suspected Stroke

Abstract Background The Irish Heart Foundation and National Clinical Programme for Stroke ran the Face, Arm, Speech, Time (FAST) public awareness campaign in January and July 2023, to raise awareness of stroke symptoms and the need for rapid response. We aim to evaluate the impact of this campaign. Methods Interrupted time series (January 2021 to December 2023) assessed the impact of the campaign on: calls received by ambulance control triaged as suspected stroke and provisional stroke diagnosis made by paramedics at time of leaving scene. Means were compared using Kruskal-Wallis test. Results Pre-campaign, the mean calls per month triaged as suspected stroke was 1060, which rose to 1130 and 1165 following the January and July bursts of the campaign respectively (p0.0017). There was a baseline trend for increasing ambulance calls for suspected stroke (β= 0.01, 95% CI 0.008 to 0.0121; p 0.001) and paramedic provisional stroke diagnoses (β=0.0083, 95% CI 0.006 to 0.0110; p0.001). The January burst of the campaign was associated with a reduction in ambulance calls (β= -0.014, 95% CI -0.022 to -0.007; p 0.001), whereas the July burst of the campaign showed a slight increase in calls compared to no campaign (β=0.031, 95% CI 0.016 to 0.047; p 0.001). Conversely, there was a trend towards an increase in paramedic-suspected strokes following the January burst of the campaign and a trend towards a decrease after the July component. Conclusion The mean number of callouts and paramedic provisional diagnosis of suspected stroke increased following the 2023 FAST campaign (9.91 percent and 12.18 percent). Overall, the study suggests the campaign led to more suspected stroke calls, but the immediate impact on call volume during the campaign periods themself was complex. These results prompt the need for further analysis.