Description | Percentage who answered appropriatelya | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Total | In-hours | Out-of-hours | χ2 | |
Sudden trouble seeing in one eye | 64.9 | 66.3 | 63.6 | 0.5193 |
‘She suddenly got clumsy; she couldn’t even get her keys out of her purse’ | 78.4 | 78.8 | 78.0 | 0.8409 |
‘While we were watching TV she said she started seeing double. She told me the room was spinning and she felt sick. She grabbed my arm and held on tight. She certainly didn’t look drunk’ | 82.4 | 83.7 | 81.1 | 0.2894 |
Sudden numbness of the leg, especially on one side | 81.4 | 82.6 | 80.3 | 0.5013 |
Sudden dizziness | 59.1 | 62.9 | 55.4 | 0.1092 |
‘It sounded like people were speaking some foreign language for a few minutes. I couldn’t understand them, and they didn’t seem to understand me either’ | 73.6 | 75.2 | 71.9 | 0.3395 |
‘I answered the phone and realised I sounded drunk. I couldn’t speak clearly no matter how hard I tried. I hadn’t had any alcohol’ | 84.7 | 85.2 | 84.3 | 0.7582 |
‘My left leg started tingling as I sat watching TV. It was strange, almost like my leg was falling asleep. I tried rubbing and shaking my leg to make the problem go away, but it wouldn’t’ | 63.3 | 64.9 | 61.7 | 0.3325 |
Sudden weakness of the arm, especially on one side | 84.1 | 85.4 | 82.8 | 0.2295 |
‘I saw he was trying to eat lunch, but pieces of his sandwich kept falling out of the right side of his mouth’ | 88.8 | 89.3 | 88.3 | 0.7702 |
Sudden confusion | 75.4 | 78.9 | 72.0 | 0.0437 |
Sudden dizziness and trouble seeing | 80.2 | 81.2 | 79.3 | 0.5576 |
Sudden trouble understanding | 77.0 | 79.8 | 74.3 | 0.1542 |
‘Suddenly I couldn’t reach for my purse because I couldn’t make my right arm move. I started drooling out of the corner of my mouth. When I tried calling to my husband for help, the words wouldn’t come out right’ | 96.8 | 96.8 | 96.9 | 0.9533 |
Sudden trouble speaking | 84.3 | 85.3 | 83.2 | 0.4209 |
‘I noticed that he kept covering and uncovering his eyes and blinking. He told me, “I can’t see”.’ | 91.0 | 92.0 | 90.0 | 0.3679 |
Sudden weakness of the face, especially on one side | 93.7 | 95.1 | 92.2 | 0.1165 |
Sudden weakness of the arm and face, especially on one side, together with trouble speaking | 95.8 | 96.8 | 94.9 | 0.2296 |
‘All of a sudden my right arm wouldn’t move’ | 91.4 | 92.6 | 90.3 | 0.324 |
Sudden loss of coordination | 86.5 | 86.8 | 86.2 | 0.8012 |
↵a Appropriate responses were if in-hours: ‘Call 000 or go to accident and emergency immediately’ or ‘Call your GP practice immediately and ask for an urgent appointment’; if out-of-hours: ‘Call 000 or go to accident and emergency immediately’ or ‘Call your GP practice or after-hours service immediately’. STAT = Stroke Action Test. TIA = transient ischaemic attack.