Introduction: The National Stroke Foundation (NSF) of Australia began stroke awareness campaigns in 2004, with an annual launch during Stroke Week (September). The message to call an ambulance in these campaigns has varied over this period of time, with calling an ambulance for symptoms only stressed across all campaign materials since the 2007 FAST (Face, Arm, Speech, Time) campaign.
Aim: To evaluate the immediate and long-term impact of these campaigns ambulance dispatches for stroke (Advanced Medical Priority Dispatch Card 28) across metropolitan Melbourne.
Methods: A cross-sectional study examining the proportion of all emergency dispatches that were Card 28s (Stroke) between 1999 and 2009. The proportions of Card 28s were statistically compared: 1) annually for each campaign year and 2) for the month before (August) to the month after (October) Stroke Week each year.
Results: Prior to the campaigns the annual proportion of Card 28s were stable (range 2.00%-2.15%), with no difference detected between August and October. In the first campaign year ambulance dispatches for stroke significantly increased (2004: 2.36%, p<0.001), and continued to increase in every year that featured calling ambulance (2009:2.97%). When stroke dispatches in August were compared to those in October, a significant increase in October was only detected for 2007 (2.62% to 3.00%, p=0.006), 2008 (2.62% to 3.05%, p=0.003), and 2009 (2.70% to 3.09%, p=0.007).
Conclusions: Calls to ambulance for stroke in Melbourne have steadily increased since the first NSF campaign, with the greatest impact seen after calling an ambulance was added to all campaign materials.