Abstracts

This is a Late-Breaking abstract.

Rationale: African Americans and Hispanics represent over 40% of Americans living with epilepsy. Stroke causes up to half of new epilepsy cases in older adults for which a cause can be identified. This makes stroke one of the most common reasons people develop epilepsy as they age. Stroke is also a major contributor to African Americans developing seizures or epilepsy overtime. There is a need to increase awareness of the connection between strokes and seizures among African American communities.

Methods: In collaboration with the American Stroke Association (ASA), a division of the American Heart Association, a #StrokestoSeizures awareness campaign was implemented to raise awareness of post-stroke seizures among stroke survivors. An infographic combining the stroke warning signs and seizure first aid steps was created to target African Americans. This campaign with a joint national press release distributed by the EF and ASA. The Washington Informer newspaper that targets Blacks in the DMV area published an article about strokes and seizures and the infographic and ESSENCE magazine featured the campaign in two issues featuring African American stroke survivors who had seizures and their caregivers. The campaign also included a Social Media Toolkit for partners and a Seizure First Aid Training featuring a stroke expert in observance of World Heart Day. The information was also used to raise awareness during Stroke Awareness Month.

Results: By working with Black Press reporters, several Black Press newspapers, such as in Seattle and Atlanta, published stories about the two featured patients highlighted in the campaign, and one of the patient stories was featured in EF’s magazine and eJourney channels. As a result of this multi-facet campaign, there were approximately 905,263 impressions across social media, newspaper, and other outlets targeting African Americans.

Conclusions: By collaborating with a national health organization with high visibility and creditability related to stroke, awareness of epilepsy disparities among African Americans was raised at the national and local levels. Sharing the seizure stories of Black stroke survivors was an effective method to raise awareness among African Americans.

Funding: This work was made possible with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) under cooperative agreement number NU58DP006065-01-00. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the CDC.