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  • Evaluation of the feasibility and acceptability of the ‘Care for Stroke’ intervention in India, a smartphone-enabled, carer-supported, educational intervention for management of disability following stroke

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Public health
Research
Evaluation of the feasibility and acceptability of the ‘Care for Stroke’ intervention in India, a smartphone-enabled, carer-supported, educational intervention for management of disability following stroke
  1. K Sureshkumar1,
  2. GVS Murthy1,
  3. S Natarajan2,
  4. C Naveen3,
  5. S Goenka4,
  6. H Kuper1
  1. 1Department of Clinical Research, International Centre for Evidence in Disability, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
  2. 2TS Srinivasan Institute of Neurological Sciences, VHS Hospital, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
  3. 3Indian Institute of Public Health (Pubic Health Foundation of India) Hyderabad, Amar Cooperative Society, Hyderabad, Telangana, India
  4. 4Indian Institute of Public Health (Public Health Foundation of India), Delhi, Haryana, India
  1. Correspondence to K Sureshkumar; suresh.kumar{at}lshtm.ac.uk

Abstract

Objectives (1) To identify operational issues encountered by study participants in using the ‘Care for Stroke’ intervention; (2) to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention.

Design Mixed-methods research design.

Setting Participant's home. Participants were selected from a tertiary hospital in Chennai, South India.

Participants Sixty stroke survivors treated and discharged from the hospital, and their caregivers.

Intervention ‘Care for Stroke’ is a smartphone-enabled, educational intervention for management of physical disabilities following stroke. It is delivered through a web-based, smartphone-enabled application. It includes inputs from stroke rehabilitation experts in a digitised format.

Methods Evaluation of the intervention was completed in two phases. In the first phase, the preliminary intervention was field-tested with 30 stroke survivors for 2 weeks. In the second phase, the finalised intervention was provided to a further 30 stroke survivors to be used in their homes with support from their carers for 4 weeks.

Primary and secondary outcome measures Primary outcomes: (1) operational difficulties in using the intervention; (2) feasibility and acceptability of the intervention in an Indian setting. Disability and dependency were assessed as secondary outcomes.

Results Field-testing identified operational difficulties related to connectivity, video-streaming, picture clarity, quality of videos, and functionality of the application. The intervention was reviewed, revised and finalised before pilot-testing. Findings from the pilot-testing showed that the ‘Care for Stroke’ intervention was feasible and acceptable. Over 90% (n=27) of the study participants felt that the intervention was relevant, comprehensible and useful. Over 96% (n=29) of the stroke survivors and all the caregivers (100%, n=30) rated the intervention as excellent and very useful. These findings were supported by qualitative interviews.

Conclusions Evaluation indicated that the ‘Care for Stroke’ intervention was feasible and acceptable in an Indian context. An assessment of effectiveness is now warranted.

  • PUBLIC HEALTH
  • REHABILITATION MEDICINE
  • GERIATRIC MEDICINE

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt and build upon this work, for commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2015-009243

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