Exploring the perspectives of key stakeholders on the design and delivery of a cognitive rehabilitation intervention for people post-stroke

• Published in: PloS one 2022-06, Vol.17 (6), p.e0269961-e0269961
• Main Authors: O' Donoghue, Mairéad, Boland, Pauline, Leahy, Siobhan, Galvin, Rose, McManus, John, Lisiecka, Dominika, Hayes, Sara
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Beliefs, opinions and attitudes; Biology and Life Sciences; Brain research; Care and treatment; Caregivers; Cognition & reasoning; Cognition disorders; Cognitive ability; Consent; Design; Exercise; Feasibility studies; Health care; Intervention; Medical care; Medical personnel; Medicine and Health Sciences; Memory; Needs assessment; Qualitative research; Quality of life; Rehabilitation; Research and Analysis Methods; Stakeholders; Stroke; Stroke patients; Support groups; Systematic review; Traumatic brain injury
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0269961

Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. Despite the prevalence and associated burden of post-stroke cognitive impairment, there is uncertainty regarding optimum interventions to improve cognitive function in people post-stroke. The aim of this study is to explore the perspectives of key stakeholders on the design and development of a multidisciplinary intervention to rehabilitate cognitive deficits in people post-stroke. Audio-recorded, semi-structured interviews were employed with people post-stroke, caregivers, healthcare professionals and academics. All transcribed interviews were exported to NVivo software and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Thirty interviews were conducted across stakeholder groups including people post-stroke (n = 10), caregivers (n = 5), healthcare professionals (n = 14) and academics (n = 1). Four themes relevant to the design and development of the intervention were identified (i) engagement in the intervention must be meaningful, (ii) the point of readiness to engage, (iii) a familiar but flexible setting is key (iv) pragmatics of intervention delivery. These findings present new perspectives across stakeholder groups on the design and delivery of an intervention to rehabilitate cognitive deficits in people post-stroke. Taken together with existing quantitative evidence, these findings will inform the development of a feasibility trial, examining patient and process outcomes, to rehabilitate cognitive deficits post-stroke.