Grant: Project Grant

The ability to effectively self-manage may help people with stroke ensure their recovery, health and wellbeing, and in doing so reduce healthcare costs. Unfortunately, little is known about how people with stroke self-manage their recovery after hospital discharge, and the associated health economic implications. Therefore, in this study we will recruit 94 older individuals (>55 years) who recently had a stroke and are returning home. We will explore: i) changes in their self-management abilities and behaviours over 12-months; and ii) the relationship between self-management abilities, health resource use and costs over time. We anticipate that our findings will inform the development of timely and targeted self-management support programs for older individuals living with the effects of stroke. We also anticipate that our results will show a relationship in which better self-management is associated with reduced health resource use and costs.