UKMStrokIT: A web-based educational package tool for longer-term care of stroke patients: a pilot randomized controlled trial

Background and aims: Stroke is a debilitating chronic illness in which patients' education and rehabilitation play major role in managing stroke patients in community.UKMStrokIT is a newly developed web-based educational intervention aiming to improve stroke knowledge, functional improvement and quality of life among stroke patients. Materials and methods:A pilot randomized controlled trial involving a total of 30 patients were recruited from Primer Clinic and Physiotherapy Unit of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC).Face and content validation were conducted among experts and carer, with verbal response given to researchers.Patients were randomized to either control or intervention group using single blinded randomization technique with computer-generated random number.The control group received pamphlets and intervention group received three sets of videos.Pre and post assessments were done using Modified Barthel Index (MBI) questionnaire, Quality of Life Questionnaire and 25-item stroke knowledge questionnaire.Open-ended questions were included to assess participants' experiences using UKMStrokIT.Analyses were done using descriptive analysis and paired t-test.Intention-to-treat analysis approach was used.Results: A total of 113 stroke patients were approached with 30 patients remained after exclusion criteria.For both MBI and QOL score, the degree of improvement was not statistically significant for video and control group.However, our results showed that there was a statistically significant improvement among video group (p= 0.015) as compared to control group (p=0.592) for stroke knowledge score.Conclusion: Video-based intervention seems to provide better understanding among stroke patient in the community compared to pamphlets.QOL and stroke knowledge showed improvement in both groups after getting some form of stroke knowledge, however it was more apparent in those received video-based intervention.