Impact of transitional care for discharged elderly stroke patients in China: an application of the Integrated Behavioral Model

Background: Transitional care (TC) has been shown to improve stroke rehabilitation in discharged stroke patients. Previous TC interventions did not report satisfactory stroke rehabilitation outcomes or risk management. Incorporating a health behavior theory in interventions can effectively improve health behaviors and metabolic indicators.

Objectives: This study was a clinical controlled trial to investigate the impact of the Integrated Behavioral Model (IBM)-based 3-month TC on health behaviors, clinical outcomes, and stroke knowledge in discharged elderly stroke patients.

Methods: Sixty elderly patients were recruited from two wards of a public teaching hospital in China. To prevent potential treatment contamination, patients were allocated into either a control or intervention group depending on which wards they were admitted to. The TC intervention considered all the IBM constructs to provide patients assistance in implementing health behaviors as recommended by the Chinese stroke guidelines. The TC intervention commenced one day before discharge and lasted three months after discharge. A linear mixed model was used to measure the impact of the intervention.

Results: The TC intervention improved the discharged elderly stroke patients’ health behaviors, activities of daily living, quality of life, and stroke knowledge. The intervention also controlled the patients’ systolic blood pressure, body mass index, total cholesterol, triglycerides, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol.

Conclusions: This study provided evidence of concurrent self-reported and objective clinical indicators in discharged elderly stroke patients for the impact of the IBM-based 3-month TC intervention, which can be recommended for clinical practice.