Early intervention can help brain stroke patients

An ICMR Stroke Study indicates that a structured preventive plan will help brain stroke patients lead a normal life and gain long terms benefits

Hyderabad: Here is some good news for stroke victims, who now have a chance to lead a normal life and avoid recurrence, which can cause death or disability.

A study on stroke victims from Hyderabad and other Indian cities by researchers from Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has indicated that a well-designed structured preventive plan will help brain stroke patients lead a normal life and gain long terms benefits.

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The ICMR Stroke Study is the first randomised trial that included 4,298 patients between 2018 and November, 2021. The study results which were published in the prestigious The Lancet (March, 2023) journal, indicated that proper adherence to a well-structured preventive plan would lead to improvement in lifestyle behavioural factors, which in turn provide long-term benefits.

The study is relevant in India because of high recurrent stroke rates among Indians, which range from 15 per cent to 21 per cent in population and hospital-based registries, ICMR researchers said.

Some of the other risk factors for India’s high burden of strokes include hypertension, diabetes mellitus, smoking, inadequate physical activity, cardiac causes, obesity and alcohol consumption.

The research was taken up by Indian Stroke Clinical Trial Network (INSTRuCT), which has 55 private and government hospitals across the country in its network and the city-base Care Hospitals, Banjara Hills is also a part of the network for study of brain stroke patients.

Recurrent stroke is a major cause of death and disability which can be minimised by lifestyle modification and improved medication adherence. There is evidence that suggests that simple text messages were effective in reducing risk factors by altering lifestyle choices.

“This is the first large randomised trial to use a structured education package inclusive of SMS, videos, and workbook in different regional languages aimed to reduce stroke recurrence and mortality in stroke survivors. Through this approach, there was an improvement in lifestyle behavioural factors and medication compliance,” the ICMR study said.

A well-designed intervention plan among brain stroke patients has the potential to improve preventive factors and even behavioural outcomes like giving up alcohol consumption, smoking and better adherence to medication, which provides long-term benefits, the ICMR researchers said.