OUTREACH OF A NATIONAL AWARENESS CAMPAIGN ON STROKE AND REHABILITATION DURING THE COVID PANDEMIC: THE CASE STUDY OF MAURITIUS

U. Gopaul¹, R. Chumroo², S. Chemen³

¹University Health Network, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute-KITE Research, Toronto, Canada, ²Physiotherapy Association Mauritius, Phoenix, Mauritius, ³University of Mauritius, Health Sciences, Reduit, Mauritius

Background: Mauritius is a small developing state of Africa with a heavy burden of stroke. In 2019, there were 4500 new cases of stroke in Mauritius, of which 20% died and the remaining living with severe disability. Over the last decade, there has been a 55% increase in the number of deaths related to stroke in Mauritius. The National Stroke Awareness Campaign (NSAC) 2021-2023 in Mauritius aimed to create awareness about stroke including: the FAST signs, seeking immediate medical help at first signs of stroke and rehabilitation after stroke.

Purpose: To evaluate the extent of outreach of a NSAC during the COVID pandemic in Mauritius.

Methods: This NSAC was a collaborative initiation three national allied health professional associations and the active contribution of various stakeholders including 17 corporate companies, four non-governmental organisations, seven district councils, four municipal councils and all national transport companies. The NSAC utilized a multi-lingual approach, emphasizing on the use of the local creole language to increase health literacy about stroke. Three main messages were emphasized: 1) Figure, Lebras, Labous and Letemps which implies the FAST signs- Face, Arm, Speech and Time; 2) VIT, “Vites azir Important Tiek ban sintom” which implies: “Check your signs. It is important to act fast“ and; 3) “sak minite konte”, which implies and “every minute counts”. Due to the COVID pandemic, this campaign primarily focused on the use of mass media, social media and live webinars through 20 dissemination partners. Educational materials developed included the creation of five videos on stroke-related topics, video testimonial of stroke survivors, a website, bulletin billboards and posters.

Results: Our stroke campaign used a targeted approach for the general public, the working population and older adults from 2021-2023. To target the public, we used billboard bulletin in high traffic locations in 14 regions across the island, as well as poster displays in four shopping malls, 26 grocery stores, local shops and public institutions in all districts(134 villages, 4 towns), all public transport such as the buses(n=2200) and light rail stations(100,000 people/day), two national universities (40,000 students). All educational materials were disseminated through social media campaign on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest reached 197,000 Mauritians. Our dissemination plan was reinforced by stroke-related articles in seven mostly read newspapers in Mauritius.
NSAC conducted 25 live radio talks and three TV shows discussing stroke-related issues with the participation of stroke survivors. There were four online webinars for the public (300 attendees). All live sessions were livestreamed through Facebook, the most common social media platform in Mauritius, thus allowing a larger outreach to Mauritians. For the working population, we prioritized online dissemination of digital posters via corporate’s emails and social media(160000 recipients). For older adults, two face-to-face sessions talks were conducted.

Conclusions: It was feasible to conduct the NSAC despite COVID restrictions targeting at least 10% of the Mauritian population.

Implications: It is expected that Mauritians are empowered to recognize the signs of stroke and access medical care early, thus reducing the mortality rate and reducing severity of residual disability.

Funding acknowledgements: Jetha Tulsidas and Others

Keywords:
Stroke
Education
Campaign

Topics:
Health promotion & wellbeing/healthy ageing/physical activity
Neurology: stroke

Did this work require ethics approval? No

Reason: This project did not require any data collection on any individual and therefore ethics approval was not applicable.