Assessing anxiety following stroke
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The Anxiety Scale Circles (ASC): a first evaluation of a simple assessment tool for anxiety in the context of stroke.
IRAS ID
179073
Contact name
David Stokes
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Research and Development Department, Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 3 months, 4 days
Research summary
Is the Anxiety Scale Circles a valid and reliable measure for screening anxiety following a stroke?
It is common for people to experience anxiety following a stroke and this can have a big impact on a person’s recovery from stroke and their quality of life. Post-stroke anxiety (PSA) often goes undetected due to a lack of appropriate screening tools, particularly when people have significant communication problems. The Anxiety Scale Circles (ASC) is a new measure which may be appropriate for screening for PSA in people with significant communication problems. The ASC is a single item questionnaire and the respondent is asked to rate their anxiety level on a scale consisting of six circles with increasing proportion of shading. The ASC is already being used by some stroke services but has not yet been shown to an effective measure. This study aims to evaluate whether the ASC has sufficient validity and reliability as a screening measure. The study also aims to establish the best clinical cut-off score for the ASC to aid clinicians in identifying when a stroke survivor is experiencing anxiety.
The study will be conducted in two sites, a neurological rehabilitation inpatient unit and a community stroke service. Participants in this study will be stroke survivors and their identified carers. Stroke survivor participants will be asked to complete 4 short questionnaires (maximum testing time of 45 minutes). Carer participants will be asked to complete one short questionnaire and help to provide background demographic information. Stroke survivors recruited from the inpatient unit will be asked to complete a further questionnaire several hours later. A minimum of 68 participants will be recruited for the study and data collection is expected to take 3-4 months.
REC name
South Central - Oxford B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/SC/0708
Date of REC Opinion
30 Dec 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion