A new study is set to enroll 1000 patients with mild to moderate disability across India to determine whether stroke recovery at home given by a trained family member is an effective, affordable strategy for those with disabling stroke in India when compared to usual care.
While Christian Medical College, Ludhiana will be the clinical coordination center for the study, Public Health Foundation of India will perform monitoring and policy dissemination and George Institute for Global Health, India will be responsible for data management and overall project management and other collaborators from UK.
ATTEND is a multicentre, randomised, blinded outcome assessor, controlled trial funded by National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Australia.The study has been initiated at two esteemed centers i.e., All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi and Christian Medical College, Ludhiana. All the local ethics committee and regulatory requirement are in place for attend study and shall start enrolling the patients before the end of the year.
Globally, 87 percent of stroke occurs in low- and middle-income countries with many people in these countries, such as India, having no access to stroke rehabilitation. Western models of stroke rehabilitation are currently unaffordable, and are likely to remain so for some decades, but evidence from the Stroke Unit and Early Supported Discharge Rehabilitation Trials suggest that components of these interventions could be introduced in a low-cost model.
Health in India is in transition with decreasing poverty-related infection and nutritional deficiency diseases and increasing chronic disease. Annual estimated stroke incidence is 135 to 145 per 100,000, with early case fatality rates ranging from 27 percent to 41 percent. This equates to ~1.5 million people having a stroke each year, leading to a further 500,000 people, each year, living with stroke-related disability.
