A new clinical trial for stroke survivors will use DVDs to help recovery, making it easier for people to be rehabilitated.
The prospective pilot clinical trial, Stroke Self-Management Rehabilitation Trial (SMART), has a recruitment site in Hamilton and aims to maximise the benefits of new technologies like DVDs, and a novel, role model observational learning tool has been developed in DVD form to act in the role a face-to-face therapist would.
The impact a stroke can have on patients, their families, and health services can be far-reaching, but community rehabilitation is limited after patients are discharged from hospital.
There is a need to develop alternatives to face-to-face therapist rehabilitation, as it can be costly.
Dr Kelly Jones, SMART manager and senior research fellow at AUT's base at Waikato University, said nearly 80 per cent of stroke survivors may need family members to care for them when they return home.
"Providing this support can take a toll on caregivers with the potential to impact general health and stress levels.
"The SMART study aims to reduce the impact of stroke for not only survivors but also their family caregivers."
The trial aims to recruit 700 stroke survivors and their families to get a better idea of the effectiveness of the DVD-based learning tool.
"We currently have 14 centres across eight countries who are involved in the SMART study and are inviting survivors of stroke and their families to participate.
"There is a unique opportunity to here to be involved in the first study to look at whether observational learning can be an effective tool to help recovery from stroke," Dr Jones said.
Information from the pilot trial will help with designing a full-scale and randomised controlled trial.
Dr Jones said recovery from a stroke may take many months but only 20 per cent of survivors receive some form of rehabilitation in the community.
"We also know that the number of survivors of stroke is expected to rise over the coming years due to the aging population and advances in stroke care.
"We need to be looking at ways to improve stroke recovery and to reduce the burden of stroke for survivors and the family members involved in their care.
"One way that we may be able to do this is to educate people around how to cope with the effects of stroke, as well as what can be done to actively support recovery."
She said the trial is randomised meaning eligible participants may be place either in the treatment DVD group, or in a group who will continue to receive usual care.
All study participants will be offered a copy of the DVD tool at the end of their involvement in the study.
Dr Jones said they encourage people who have suffered a stroke in the past three years and have access to a home DVD player to contact them to find out more about SMART.
Contact Dr Kelly Jones on 07 838 4257 or email kejones@aut.ac.nz