Improving Parent Sign-Up for a Children's Stroke Awareness Program

Many families do not sign up for a school-based stroke awareness program (FAST Heroes) that teaches children and parents to recognize stroke symptoms and act quickly. This study compared four different ways of encouraging parents to complete online registration for the program: a printed letter sent home, an email, an email combined with follow-up reminders from teachers, and an email combined with teacher reminders plus an automated chatbot. Thirty-seven schools that had not previously had any parents register were assigned to one of these four approaches, and the study measured how many parents in each group registered within eight weeks. The goal was to identify practical, low-cost communication strategies that schools and public health programs can use to increase parent engagement with health education initiatives.

Inclusion criteria: * School was implementing the FAST Heroes stroke awareness programme during the 2023-2024 school year * Zero parental registrations recorded for the school prior to the start of the study (2024-2025 school year) * School and/or parents provided informed consent to participate Exclusion criteria: * Schools with one or more parental registrations already recorded prior to the study period * Schools that did not provide consent to participate * Schools not located in Greece