Introduction:

worldwide, cerebrovascular accidents constitute a health problem with a growing tendency. Due to the impact of the high socioeconomic cost of this disease on the health system of any nation because of its high mortality and its colossal disabling sequel, it is particularly important to establish immediate preventive actions.

Objective:

to describe the level of knowledge about cerebrovascular accident and its risk factors in older adults.

Methods:

a descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted in patients of the Polyclinic “Marta Abreu” from January to December 2019, the study population consisted of 120 patients dispensed with stroke risk factor, all constituted the study sample. They were administered a questionnaire on knowledge of cerebrovascular accidents and their risk factors. Descriptive statistical techniques were applied, absolute and relative frequencies were calculated and simple statistical tables were constructed to describe the behavior of the variables under study.

Results:

patients between 60 and 69 years of age, female (36, 30%), hypertension among the well-documented modifiable risk factors (114, 95%) and diabetes (54, 45%) among the well-documented potentially modifiable risk factors predominated.

Conclusions:

older adults between 60 and 69 years of age were more frequent, of female sex and with ignorance about the types of cerebrovascular accidents, complications and their risk factors.

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