Study protocol: a randomised controlled trial of a nurse-led community-based self-management programme for improving recovery among community-residing stroke survivors.

BACKGROUND: Recovery after stroke is long-term and demanding. Optimising community-residing stroke survivors' capability to self-manage their health is integral. Recent systematic reviews have shown that stroke self-management programmes were associated with significant improvement in stroke survivors' health-related quality of life and self-efficacy. However some programmes were not designed with an underpinning theoretical framework. The aim of this study is to compare the effectiveness of a nurse-led stroke self-management programme with usual care on recovery of community-residing stroke survivors.

METHODS/DESIGN: A single-blinded, two-arm, randomised controlled trial will be conducted. Patients with a history of first or recurrent ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke who will be discharged to home settings will be recruited from acute stroke units of three acute public hospitals in Hong Kong. The estimated sample size is 160 (80 participants per group). Eligible participants will be randomised to receive either usual care or a 4-week nurse-led community-based self-management programme plus usual care after discharge. The programme, underpinned by Bandura's constructs of self-efficacy and outcome expectation, includes one individual home visit, two community-based group sessions, and three follow-up phone calls. Primary outcomes include stroke survivors' self-efficacy and outcome expectation of performing self-management behaviours. Secondary outcomes include health-related quality of life, satisfaction with performance of self-management behaviours, depressive symptoms, and community reintegration. Participants will be assessed at baseline and at 8 weeks after randomisation. Generalised estimating equations will be performed to evaluate the significance of changes in outcomes over time by treatment condition. Research ethics approvals were obtained.

DISCUSSION: It is expected that stroke survivors receiving the stroke self-management programme will have improved self-efficacy, outcome expectation, and performance of stroke self-management behaviours. Enhanced quality of life and level of community reintegration, and decreased depressive symptoms are also expected. The study results will provide valuable evidence to inform future identification and evaluation of best approach to deliver stroke self-management programmes to enhance community-residing stroke survivors' recovery.

TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02112955 ; date of registration: 09/04/2014.