Knowledge and self-care practices among patients with post-stroke hemiplegia at the Traditional Medicine Hospital of the Ministry of Public Security in 2025

Abstract

Stroke is a clinical syndrome characterised by the sudden onset of focal neurological deficits, typically lasting more than 24 hours or leading to death within 24 hours. Currently, stroke is the leading cause of disability in adults, often resulting in significant sequelae; however, in-depth studies on the knowledge and self-care practices of patients with post-stroke hemiplegia in Vietnam remain limited. The study aimed to describe the knowledge and self-care practices of patients with post-stroke hemiplegia treated at the Traditional Medicine Hospital of the Ministry of Public Security in 2025. The results showed that patients with acute post-stroke hemiplegia had relatively good knowledge but poor self-care practices: Patients aged under 60 years were 4.09 times more likely to have correct knowledge about stroke than those aged over 60 years; patients with at least intermediate-level education or higher were 3.49 times more likely to have correct knowledge than those with upper secondary education or lower; patients with more than two stroke episodes were 4.60 times more likely to have incorrect self-care practices than those experiencing their first stroke; patients with insufficient knowledge had a 9.30-fold higher risk of incorrect self-care practices than those with adequate knowledge.