Evaluation of the factors affecting the time period of hospital admission in acute ischemic stroke

In this study, it was aimed to determine the time period between the onset of the first complaints and admission to hospital and the factors affecting this time in hospitalized patients with acute ischemic stroke. The research was conducted with 111 patients with ischemic stroke receiving treatment in the department of neurology of a state hospital between June 2019 and October 2019. The data were obtained by using "Patient İnformation Forms" containing the socio-demographic information of the stroke patents, stroke risk factors and stroke symptoms, "American National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS)" and "Health Perception Scale".The mean age of the patients in the study was 68.24±11.15 years and 50.5% of them were female. 72.1% of the patients reached the hospital within two hours after the onset of the stroke symptoms. Early admission to hospital is more frequent when the income status of the patient is at a medium level, the patient remembers the onset of the symptoms, there is not so much time to decide on coming to hospital/calling for help, it does not take so much time to reach the hospital after deciding on coming to hospital/calling for help, the patient admits to hospital between 08.00 and 17.00, the individual who calls for help is married and his/her income level is at a medium level (p<0.05). There were more delays in admission to hospital when the patient knew at least two symptoms of stroke, had hypertension or diabetes, used warfarin, noticed the first symptoms and was alone at the onset of the symptoms and when the patient's NIHSS score was high and the stroke began with the symptom of difficulty in understanding (p<0.05). The health perceptions of the individuals seeking help were not different than those who admitted to hospital early (p>0.05). Key words: Stroke, pre-hospitalization period, nursing, health perception