Recovery after stroke: the role of illness beliefs
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Development of an evidence-based psychosocial intervention to improve clinical outcomes following stroke.
IRAS ID
139179
Contact name
Nikola Sprigg
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Nottingham
Research summary
The project is about ‘illness beliefs.’ These are the beliefs that people have about their stroke, such as what might have caused it or what it does to them. We want to learn more about this area in people who have had a stroke. We want to know how people see their stroke and understand it. This is because we want to help people to get the most out of their treatment and therapy after stroke. This could include drugs, or seeing a physiotherapist or an occupational therapist. We want people to recover as best as they can. Some research has said that how people feel about their illness can affect what they do to get better. We want to find out if this is true for stroke survivors.
First, we will find a good way to measure beliefs. We have already done some work on a questionnaire. This questionnaire has been used before to measure beliefs in people with other illnesses, like heart disease. Comments from stroke survivors really helped us to make our questionnaire suitable for people with stroke. We now want to finalise our questionnaire by talking to some more stroke survivors. We want to find out how we can make it better.
We will then use our questionnaire to find out more about whether peoples’ beliefs affect how well they engage with (take part in) their treatment and therapy after stroke. We will also see whether peoples’ beliefs are related to their mood and recovery.
We will use what we find out to develop a ‘psychosocial intervention.’ This is a way to help people to change any beliefs about their stroke that are stopping them from engaging with their treatment and therapy, and achieving a good recovery. We want to support people to feel better.
REC name
East Midlands - Leicester Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/EM/0392
Date of REC Opinion
28 Nov 2013
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion