Arm rehabilitation after stroke
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Implementation and evaluation of a behaviour change intervention to facilitate evidencebased upper limb rehabilitation after stroke
IRAS ID
157255
Contact name
Louise Connell
Contact email
Research summary
Every year, 15 million people worldwide suffer a stroke. Two thirds of stroke survivors will achieve independent ambulation after stroke, but less than half will recover upper limb function at six months. Interventions with the strongest evidence for promoting recovery after stroke continue to be those that favour high intensity repetitive taskoriented training. Much of the insight into rehabilitation after brain injury has been derived from animal studies
investigating neuroplasticity, where animals have been required to engage in hundreds of repetitions of tasks.
However, observational studies have shown that the amount of task specific practice in stroke rehabilitation is small compared to animal studies, and suggest that current practice in stroke rehabilitation may not be sufficient to optimise functional recovery after stroke. It has also been reported that the most common activities practiced in a physiotherapy session are walking, sitting, and standing with the average amount of time spent in upper limb activities ranging from
0.9 to 7.9 minutes per therapy session.
A behaviour change intervention (BCI) has been developed which aims to address this evidencepractice
gap. The BCI consists of (i) a toolkit and (ii) supported implementation from the research team in the form of facetoface
meetings and telephone/email contact as needed. This study will evaluate this behaviour change intervention in two stroke
rehabilitation units in the North West of England. Data will be collected in three ways: (i) changes in professional
practice will be evaluated by the rehabilitation team through selfmonitoring of clinical notes, (ii) feasibility and acceptability of the intervention will be explored using semistructured interviews with members of the rehabilitation team and (iii) stroke survivors' and family members'/carers' experiences of upper limb rehabilitation after stroke will be explored using semistructured interviews.REC name
North West - Preston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/NW/1087
Date of REC Opinion
23 Jul 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion