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BENEFITS OF FAMILY SUPPORT FOR CARERS OF STROKE PATIENTS (p 808)

August 30, 2000

Family support can significantly improve psychological and social outcomes for carers of people who have experienced stroke, concludes research published in this week's issue of THE LANCET.

Little is known about the value of support services for stroke patients and their families. Jonathan Mant and colleagues did a randomised trial to assess the impact of a family-support programme provided by the UK Stroke Association on patients' and carers' knowledge of stroke, social activities, emotional state, quality of life, and satisfaction with understanding of stroke. The investigators studied 323 patients admitted to hospitals in Oxford, UK, with acute stroke, and 267 close-family carers.

Patients assigned family support were referred to a family-support organiser (FSO). All participants in the family-support group received Stroke Association information leaflets, and were left a contact number for the FSO.

After 6 months of normal stroke care or family support, questionnaires revealed that carers in the family-support group had significantly better ratings of social activity, quality of life, and satisfaction with understanding of stroke than carers in the control group. However, the family-support programme appeared to have no effect on the patients themselves.

Jonathan Mant comments: "When someone has a stroke, the whole family is affected. We found that a family support service can lead to measurable benefits for carers. This result illustrates the potential importance of relatively simple interventions for patients and their families in the months following a stroke, and raises the hope that the quality of life of carers of stroke patients can be improved". (Quote by e-mail; does not appear in published paper).

Contact: Dr Jonathan Mant, Department of Primary Care & General Practice, The Medical School, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, BIRMINGHAM B15 2TT, UK; T) +44 (0)121 414 2657; F) +44 (0)121 414 3759; E) j.w.mant@bham.ac.uk

Lancet

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