Swedish National Stroke Campaign (AKUT)
Also: Nationella strokekampanjen · AKUT-testet
Nationwide 27-month campaign (7 October 2011 to 31 December 2013) run by the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions for all county councils, teaching AKUT, a Swedish version of FAST, and to call 112 at once when stroke symptoms appear.
- Years
- 2011–2013
- Country
- Sweden
- Budget
- SEK 50 million (campaign slides, Rosengren 2016)
- Coined
- AKUT
- Topic
- CardiovascularStroke
- Asks people to
- RecognizeSeek help
- Strategy
- Coined termSimple instruction
- Channel
- OutdoorPrintTVWebsite
- Audience
- AdultsGeneral public
Evidence
ObservationalPositive
Phone surveys (1,500 people at eight points): recall of AKUT keywords rose from 4% before to 23% during/after and 14% 21 months later; intent to call 112 from 65% to 76% (73% later) (Nordanstig et al. 2017). In the national stroke register (97,840 patients, 2010-2014), arrival within 3 hours and recanalisation therapy both rose during the campaign and held the year after; last campaign year vs year before: OR 1.05 for arrival within 3 h, OR 1.34 for recanalisation (Nordanstig et al. 2019).
Sponsor (who paid)
- Sveriges Kommuner och Landsting (Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions), for the county councils and regions Foreign government, organiser and funder
Credits (who made it)
- Lars Rosengren Individual source
Related campaigns
- Stroke Foundation FAST campaigns 2004–now
- Act FAST 2009–now
- FAST Signs of Stroke (Heart & Stroke Canada) 2014–now
- Stroke Awareness (Spot a Stroke F.A.S.T.) 2013–now
Sources
- Nordanstig A et al. Impact of the Swedish National Stroke Campaign on stroke awareness. Acta Neurol Scand 2017;136:345-351 evaluation · 2017 · DOI 10.1111/ane.12777 · PMID 28560735
- Nordanstig A et al. Evaluation of the Swedish National Stroke Campaign: A population-based time-series study. Int J Stroke 2019;14:862-870 evaluation · 2019 · DOI 10.1177/1747493019840939 · PMID 30971191
- Rosengren L. Nationella Strokekampanjen (slides, Danish Stroke Society meeting, Aarhus, 17 June 2016) history · 2016
Research notes
Dates, organiser (slides say 'Sveriges Landsting och Regioner'; SKL was the body's name then, now SKR) and SEK 50m budget read from the Rosengren slide PDF. It grew out of a Vastra Gotaland regional campaign (2010-2012, SEK 15m). Channels: TV and newspaper ads, website, banners and worksite materials per a Karger conference abstract seen only in search results ('outdoor' for banners is a guess). A self-reported claim that the campaign won a World Stroke Organization award and saved 100+ people was seen only in a search snippet (akademiliv.se), not verified. The Nordanstig evaluators include campaign medical advisers (Rosengren's slides list the steering group).
Record cases/se-national-stroke-campaign-akut.json, updated 2026-10-23· Link to this campaign