Monitoring physical behaviour and developing an intervention in stroke

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Developing and evaluating a brief personalised intervention that aims to increase physical activity post stroke.

  • IRAS ID

    160113

  • Contact name

    Hayley Connell

  • Contact email

    hayley.connell@gcu.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    Glasgow Caledonian University

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    1 years, 1 months, 1 days

  • Research summary

    From recent research we know it is important to be active after having a stroke as it will help with recovery and help to stop another stroke from occurring. Many acute stroke patients are inactive while they are in hospital and continue an inactive lifestyle once they leave hospital. The aim of this research is to firstly collect information regarding activity patterns of stroke patients when they are still in hospital. We then aim to understand the feasibility and acceptability of a brief intervention that will be developed depending on the data collected on the patients about their physical activity patterns.
    We will collect information on type of activity, position of the body during the activity (e.g.standing/sitting/walking) and finally intensity of activity in the form of heart rate. We can use this information to clearly show how active patients are within hospital, and how intense this activity is. We will also collect information on physical activity levels pre stroke, and their readiness to change post stroke. This data is important as it will influence a brief intervention that aims to increase physical activity in stroke patients. It is also important to understand how intense activity is within the ward as exercise that reaches certain benchmarks may promote a more positive recovery for the patient. This research will show us what specific activities reach higher heart rates and are therefore more beneficial.
    The brief intervention will involve semi structured discussions with each patient containing information on their own personal physical activity while they are in hospital, an estimation of how active they were before their stroke, and how ready they feel to become more active after their stroke. They will be provided with an information pack that will contain information about the importance of safe physical activity after their stroke, and local support available in the area. There will be a follow up period of 1 week and 6 weeks after discharge to monitor physical activity over 48 hours. This intervention is new and although the overall aim is to increase activity after stroke, this research project will focus on how feasible and acceptable the design is with the aim of a pilot randomised control study in the future.

  • REC name

    East of Scotland Research Ethics Service REC 1

  • REC reference

    15/ES/0140

  • Date of REC Opinion

    26 Aug 2015

  • REC opinion

    Favourable Opinion