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What did I do?
I developed a novel home-based rehabilitation programme, including ‘The Healthy Brain Rehabilitation Manual’, for patients with a first transient ischaemic attack (TIA) or ‘minor’ stroke of atherosclerotic origin, using the core components of home-based cardiac rehabilitation (CR) and conducted a pilot randomised controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate its effectiveness.
Why did I do it?
CR is an effective form of secondary prevention for cardiovascular disease. CR after myocardial infarction results in reduced reinfarction risk and all-cause mortality.1 However, despite sharing similar pathology with coronary heart disease and the 90-day risk of further vascular events after a TIA or ‘minor’ stroke being as high as 18%,2 3 the value of CR for patients with a TIA or ‘minor’ stroke is unclear.
How did I do it?
I followed the Medical Research Council guidelines for developing complex health service interventions. First, I conducted a systematic review (SR) of secondary prevention lifestyle interventions initiated within 90 days of a TIA or ‘minor’ stroke and then a SR on the use of behaviour change techniques (BCTs) in home-based CR. I used the SRs’ findings to adapt a …