Professor of Anthropology & Global Health
Professor of Rehabilitation
Professor of Public Health
Co-investigator, Stroke in Sierra Leone
Stroke Register
We set up the stroke register to find out how many people in Sierra Leone have a stroke and how stroke affects them and their families. We use this information to: increase our knowledge about stroke; help improve quality of care at the hospital and in the community; publish scientific articles about stroke.
We collect stroke data from Connaught Hospital, the main adult referral hospital in Freetown, using a stroke register model, a prospective longitudinal cohort study.
Progress:
We established a stroke register at Connaught Hospital, and started collecting data in April 2019, we now have over 500 participants on the register. We collected data at admission on:
1) Socio-economic factors
2) Stroke risk factors
3) Care seeking
4) Stroke severity, and post-stroke disability
5) Investigations
6) In hospital care
7) Patient outcome
We also follow up register participants, at 90 days and one-year post admission.
We collect data through a combination of telephone, and community follow-up. We aim to document through follow-up data on:
1) Patient status
2) New symptoms
3) Admission to health facilities
4) Cost of post-stroke care
5) Disability level
Capacity Building
This project aims to improve research and healthcare delivery capacity of Sierra Leone.
We are currently working on three different elements within this project. We are supporting three Masters of Public Health, a PhD, and a College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences Medical Students' stroke-related dissertations.
As the project develops, we will also support the training of healthcare staff to deliver our intervention at Connaught Hospital.
We are also delivering continuous Good Clinical Practice (GCP) training for all the staff involved with the project.
Qualitative Research and Community Engagement
The purpose of this area of SISLE is to ensure that the design and implementation of our research is sensitive to local needs and priorities.
Progress:
A stroke survivors’ group was set up in July 2019 as a platform for dialogue and decision-making between service users, service providers and the research team. The group now meets monthly and has blossomed into a dual platform for research-specific community engagement and peer support. In a joint effort with the survivors and families, we were able to represent Sierra Leone in the World Stroke Organisation’s virtual relay for the first time in 2019.
In the final year of our programme, our efforts will be focused on planning and enacting sustainability measures to ensure our positive impact continues beyond the lifetime of the programme.
Nurse-Led Intervention
This project is aimed at improving care of stroke patients at Connaught Hospital.
We have identified through the stroke register that patients who present at Connaught with strokes do not receive any swallow assessment and we also see that a large number of patients develop pneumonia during their time in the hospital. With this in mind, we are looking at intervening in stroke care through implementation of a culturally specific swallow screening tool.
We are currently working on a rapid review on swallow screening tools for stroke in Sub-Saharan Africa. This will help inform the work on creating a swallow screen tool that can be used at Connaught Hospital.
Study Governance
This work package is responsible for the governance, managerial, financial and ethical management of the award and is led by Professor Catherine Sackley.