Recurrent stroke represents up to one in four stroke events and remains a major contributor to long-term disability, mortality, and healthcare burden. Although evidence-based secondary prevention strategies; such as adherence to antihypertensive and lipid-lowering medication, antiplatelet therapy, smoking cessation, and lifestyle modification, significantly reduce risk, many stroke survivors struggle to sustain these behaviours in the months and years following their initial event. Structured behaviour-change interventions that build self-management capacity may help address this gap.
‘Living Well After Stroke’, developed in Australia, is a theory-informed behaviour-change programme designed to enhance individuals’ ability to manage their health by supporting goal setting, problem solving, self-monitoring, and personalised feedback. The programme aims to empower stroke survivors to adopt and maintain behaviours that reduce recurrent stroke risk.
This pilot study will evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of implementing ‘Living Well After Stroke’ within a community-based stroke rehabilitation service in Ireland. Specifically, the study will examine recruitment and retention rates, participant engagement, fidelity of programme delivery, and perspectives of both participants and clinicians. The study will also explore preliminary impacts on self-management skills, health behaviours, and modifiable secondary-prevention risk factors.
The findings will inform the refinement of the intervention and determine whether progression to a full-scale evaluation is warranted. Ultimately, this project seeks to establish whether a structured self-management programme can be effectively integrated into Irish stroke services to support long-term secondary prevention.