Stroke Epidemiology Laboratory
Supervisor: Associate Professor Mandy Thrift
Email: mandy.thrift@bakeridi.edu.au
Approximately 50,000 Australians suffer a stroke each year. Survivors of stroke are more likely to suffer another vascular event (stroke or heart attack) than people who have not had a stroke. The risk factors for development of further stroke include elevations in blood pressure, blood glucose and cholesterol, smoking, being overweight and inactive. Indeed the majority of stroke patients have two or more of these preventable risk factors. To reduce the personal and economic costs, we must find simple, individualised and efficient approaches to reduce risk factors and prevent further vascular occurrences.
There are many proven therapies for preventing stroke recurrence, e.g. blood pressure lowering, but uptake of these therapies is poor. The use of educational and motivational counselling to promote behavioural changes can be effective in improving risk factor profile. Furthermore, tailoring lifestyle interventions to an individual has been shown to improve behaviour change.
We aim to encourage General Practitioner (GP) utilisation of an individualised plan to improve risk factor management in stroke patients in the community. This will be a randomised controlled trial with stroke patients allocated to either an Intervention group (nurse-led individually designed plan) or Control group (usual care).
It is anticipated that stroke patients undertaking a comprehensive management plan in the community will have greater reductions in blood pressure than stroke patients undergoing usual care. These studies will cover the full spectrum of a successful clinical trial from patient recruitment and randomisation, patient interviews, development of individual CDM plans for patients, patient education, data processing and analysis and report writing.
Our team is small but committed to increasing understanding of stroke prevention and in providing a supportive environment for students to achieve their full research potential. We are seeking motivated and enthusiastic students (PhD and Hons) who are eager to develop their research, problem-solving and communication skills. For specific details on the project we have on offer: contact amanda.thrift@bakeridi.edu.au
North East Melbourne Stroke Incidence Study (NEMESIS).
Over the past 10 years the health of 1686 people aged between 2 and 102 years have been tracked through a series of questionnaires conducted during patient-nurse interviews. During this time we have assessed the costs of stroke, and physical and mental wellbeing. The data have all been collected and we are looking for students interested in developing their own hypotheses about long-term outcome, and applying these to the study. For example, little is known about how differently men and women survive in the long-term after their stroke and whether their quality of life also differs. These, and many other questions, can be answered using the data already collected.
International Health in India and Vietnam.
There may also be opportunities for students to contribute to some of the international health projects that are being undertaken within the unit.
Our team is committed to increasing understanding of stroke prevention and in providing a supportive environment for students to achieve their full research potential. We are seeking motivated and enthusiastic students (PhD and Hons) who are eager to develop their research, problem-solving and communication skills. Further details on some of our projects are available at:
