The Italian Stroke-APP: www.ictus3R

THE ITALIAN STROKE-APP: WWW.ICTUS3R.IT OBJECTIVE. Compelling evidences exist that increasing population knowledge about stroke warning signs and risk factors can reduce stroke burden, but the uptake of this knowledge can be difficult and poor (1). Smartphone applications are being increasingly used even by elderly people (2) and could offer unique opportunities for improving stroke awareness and prevention. Most stroke-related applications currently available for patients and general population lack scientific validity in terms of adherence to current stroke literature and guidelines (3) and all of them are in English only. We developed a user-friendly,free-of-cost application in italian, available at www.ictus3r.it, to contribute filling the gaps in stroke knowledge among Italian people. Here we report on the use of this application. METHODS. The application was designed to include comprehensive stroke information primarly accessed via a scrollable index. Three major sections were dedicated to stroke symptoms recognition, reaction, and prevention. Other sections included stroke information and calculation of personal stroke risk according to the Framingham Stroke Risk Score. The application provides individual's relative risk, compared with someone of the same age and sex free of modifiable risk factor for stroke.Contact information of Italian patients' support organizations are made available as well. Data on usage were anonymously collected during the first 6 months following release (October 29, 2014). RESULTS. The application was downloaded a total of 16.000 times, of which 94% was by individuals in Italy. The age-group mostly interested in the applications was 25-34 years of age (33,5%) but also the 12% of the downloads were from people 55 and over. Geographical distribution shows a north-to-south gradient. More than 500 downloads were done in US. The most interesting (most times visited) page was the stroke risk calculator.Visitors picked in relation to national newspaper articles or national television broadcasting where the ICTUS3R application had been mentioned and described. CONCLUSIONS. ICTUS3R available at www.ictus3r.it for smartphone, tablet, and PC is a well-received application for dissemination of stroke information among Italians. Application widespread and download are strongly correlated with specific mass-media promotional events.