Abstract Body: Introduction: FAST Heroes is an international awareness campaign. Its mission is to teach 1 million children worldwide to recognize a stroke and respond correctly. The campaign has been developed and sponsored by ANGELS Initiative and is implemented in 38 countries. The education of the pupils takes five lessons in five weeks. Each country follows its own implementation plan. Here, we present the implementation practice of the Czech Republic.
Methodology: The campaign was conducted in 10 of the 14 regions in the Czech Republic. Schools with primary grades and kindergartens were selected from public school databases and all of them were directly contacted using low and middle intensity recruitment strategy. A low-intensity recruitment used communication with emails or letters with no follow up. Middle intensity recruitment used not only emails or letters but also follow-up with emails or letter, organizing events for children, engagement of regional hospital and/or EMS. The cost of low and middle intensity recruitment strategy was 6 USD and 18 USD per school respectively.
Results: From April 2023 to June 2024, 5,573 schools and kindergartens were contacted via email or letter and 488 schools had registered for the program (36% kindergartens and 64% primary schools), covering 518 classes and 10,888 pupils. Four regions used low intensity recruitment while six regions used middle intensity recruitment strategy. Low intensity strategy recruited from 2% to 9% of all schools while middle intensity strategy recruited 10%, 11%, 14%, and 17% of all schools in the region, respectively. The best recruitment (10-17%) was achieved if regional authority, such as governor, hospital or EMS communicated the campaign to schools.
Conclusion: Pupils in more than 10% of all schools were educated about stroke using relatively low-cost recruitment strategy. Most likely, it is however not realistic to recruit schools without at least moderate funding. It is beneficial to involve regional hospitals, EMS, or regional government to increase school recruitment in health awareness program.