Research

Measuring treatment burden in stroke survivors (TRUSTED study)

People with stroke may have to put time and effort into managing their condition, for example by taking medications and attending hospital and GP appointments, as well as other therapists.

Person using a walking frame supported by a carer

If people with stroke find these routines difficult and time consuming, it is possible that they may feel unable to follow their treatments, as they are overwhelmed by them. For example they may not take all their tablets as they feel they have too many to take or they may not be able to arrange transport to all their different appointments. 

The term "treatment burden" is defined as the workload of managing health and the impact that this work has on wellbeing. Recent research has given us knowledge about how stroke survivors experience treatment burden. Now we want to develop a way of measuring treatment burden so that we can identify those who are heavily burdened and to allow as to test out different ways of providing healthcare and measure the impact on treatment burden. 

Looking for volunteers! 

We are currently recruiting for the TRUSTED study that aims to test a new self-reported questionnaire that measures treatment burden after stroke (PETS-stroke). We plan to test PETS-stroke in a large group of stroke survivors within one year of their stroke by giving out survey packs that are completed at home and sent back to the research team. In future we plan to use PETS-stroke to measure how treatment burden affects outcomes such as quality-of-life and develop and test new ways of providing healthcare that lessen treatment burden. If you are interested in helping us by filling out our survey, please email martin.taylor-rowan@glasgow.ac.uk or call 0141 330 8323.

The team

  • Dr Katie Gallacher (General Practice and Primary Care, University of Glasgow)
  • Prof Frances Mair (General Practice and Primary Care, University of Glasgow)
  • Dr Martin Taylor-Rowan (General Practice and Primary Care, University of Glasgow)
  • Prof Lisa Kidd (Research Centre for Health (ReaCH)/School of Health and Life Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian University)
  • Dr Terry Quinn (Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences, University of Glasgow)
  • Prof David Eton 
  • Prof Hamish McLeod (Institute of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow)

Contact for further information 

Dr Katie Gallacher
0141 330 8323 | Katie.Gallacher@glasgow.ac.uk