Relationship Between Anxiety and Stroke Warning Signs in the Elderly

Abstract

Objectives: We aimed to investigate the relationship between anxiety and stroke warning signs in the elderly.

Methods: Data obtained from 1,078 subjects (256 men and 822 women) aged above 65 years was analyzed from Suwon Project, which was a cohort comprising of nonrandom convenience samples. All the subjects completed the study questionnaire including their demographic characteristics, history of current and past illnesses, drug history, Korean version-Mini Mental State Examination (K-MMSE), SGDS-K (Korean version of the Geriatric Depression Scale-Short Form), BAI (Beck Anxiety Inventory). Stroke warning signs were defined as 5 stroke warning signs consistent with the American heart association public health message

Results: There was significant relationship of anxiety and the number of stroke warning signs after adjusting age, sex, educational level and depression (β=2.145, p＜0.0001). On analysis of covariance, the interaction of the number of experienced stroke warning signs with sex on anxiety was observed after adjusting for the age, educational level, K-MMSE, and SGDS-K (p=0.011).

Conclusion: These results suggest that there was significant relationship of anxiety and stroke the elderly.