Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Background: A healthy lifestyle is known to reduce the risk of stroke. The objective of this study was to assess factors influencing a healthy lifestyle prior to a stroke. Methods: This one time study included patients admitted to a stroke unit. Patients were interviewed before they had any stroke education (within 48-72 hours of admission). The primary outcome was the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile (HPLP-II) that is a 52-item self-report scale and was recalled for the week prior to their stroke. Data was analyzed to determine the association between the HPLP-II and different variables including stroke knowledge. The assessment of stroke knowledge includes measuring their level of understanding about symptoms and risk factors of stroke and most common lifestyle changes required for prevention of stroke. Results: Ninety patients participated. There was no association between HPLP-II and HDL, LDL, Cholesterol, Triglyceride and HgbA1C, socio-demographics (income, education, gender or age) or cognitive or functional status. However, higher health promoting lifestyle profile scores were related to living with someone (versus alone) and increased Stroke Knowledge and these two variables accounted for 15% of the variability in the HPLP-II scores. Discussion and Conclusion: Living with someone and having stroke knowledge accounted for a small amount of the variability in the healthy lifestyle profile. The results support efforts to provide stroke knowledge to improve healthy lifestyle and primary prevention. This information will facilitate the development of stroke prevention programs in the future.