Visual Impairment after Stroke
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Visual Impairment after Stroke Study; Assessing Priorities and Acceptibility of Emerging Technologies to Improve Outcome
IRAS ID
160862
Contact name
Nikola Sprigg
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Nottingham
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
northeast-newcastleand north tyneside2, 14/ne/1166
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Visual problems are common after stroke and affect up to 60% of survivors. The resultant disability impacts on ability to perform everyday tasks, such as reading and driving, and is present in 25% of survivors at 3 months. Visual impairment, which can vary over time, can result mobility problems, inability to judge distances and increases risks of falls. There is a recognised link between poor vision, quality of life and depression, particularly in older people.
However, post stroke visual impairments can be poorly defined by patients and often go undetected leading to significant patient and career burden. Visual problems also limit engagement with rehabilitation and access to educational communications, which can impact on all aspects of recovery after stroke.
Whilst there are many such unmet needs in stroke survivors, the options for intervention can be limited. Potential interventions include restorative approaches, compensatory approaches and adaptive strategies. Recent developments in technology present new opportunities for theses interventions to improve outcomes in post stroke visual impairment. An exemplar of this technology is already being developed in Nottingham for the assessment and treatment of children with amblyopia.
This study primarily aims to determine what major disabilities arise from visual impairment following stroke and prioritise such disabilities in importance. A second aim is to assess the acceptability of using such technology in combination with a visual care pathway for improving vision and function after stroke.
Participants will be recruited from inpatients in NUH wards following admission due to stroke, when attending ophthalmology clinics or are identified as having attended previously with visual impairments following stroke.
Focus groups will be run, with a maximum of 18 participants, from which the findings will be used to construct a questionnaire, which will be posted to a minimum of 150 participants. A conjoint analysis will be run on the questionnaire responses.REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/EM/1193
Date of REC Opinion
6 Nov 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion