Purpose: The study aimed at assessing awareness and perception of stroke among secondary school teachers in South Western Nigeria in order to develop stroke primary prevention program for adults in Nigeria. 

Relevance: Stroke is currently the second leading cause of death after heart disease in the Western world and in Africa stroke is the cause of 4-9% of Hospital death. It is the major cause of neurological admission in Nigeria. Prevention remains the best approach to reduce the burden of stroke especially in Africa; however the success of these primary preventive measures is dependent on the public perception and the knowledge of stroke warning signs and risk factors.

Participants: Two hundred and forty five teachers from twenty three secondary schools  aged 21-60 years participated in the study.

Methods; A Five sectioned standardized questionnaire developed by Yoon et al  (2001) and validated by Akande (2005) for Nigerians was used to obtain information on demographic variables, stroke awareness and stroke perception among respondents. The questionnaire was self administered.

Analysis: Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics of mean, standard deviation and percentages, pie charts and Bar charts were used to analyze findings. Inferential statistics of chi square was used to test association between each of the components of stroke related knowledge and perception and demographic characteristics of the respondents.

Results: Results showed that the participants baseline knowledge of stroke was good. More than 50% of had a wrong perception of stroke believing that stroke is caused by witches and wizards  while others perceived that stroke was due to stress family disease and some forms of germs.. Eighty six percent of the respondents were not concerned about the possibility of having stroke

Conclusion: It was concluded that baseline knowledge of stroke was good , however awareness of stroke warning signs was poor. Also most of the participants had a wrong perception of stroke. Implication: There is need to develop health education strategies to enlighten people about stroke.

Key- words: Awareness, perception, stroke

Funding acknowledgement: None

Ethical approval; Ethical approval was sought and obtained from UI/UCH ethical committee