NCT04033952

Strategy Training on Improving Executive Functions in Persons Following Acquired Brain Injury

• Status: Active Not Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 180 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Taipei Medical University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 20 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

About two-third individuals with acquired brain injury (ABI) experience cognitive impairments. Deficits in executive functions is one of the most prevalent cognitive impairments following ABI which result in decline of recovery and independence. Lack of intervention shows evidence of immediate and long-term effect on executive function which is critical after returning to the community. The overall aim of this study is to examine the efficacy of strategy training intervention on executive functions and participation on community-dwelling people with ABI. Findings of the study will provide unequivocal evidence on the duration of effectiveness of strategy training and support the development and application of the program in rehabilitation practice.

Detailed description

The study will use a double-blinded, parallel-group randomized controlled trial to assess the efficacy of the strategy training intervention program in comparison to the control group. The investigators will recruit community-dwelling individuals with ABI in outpatient rehabilitation units and randomly assign them to the intervention group and the control group at a 1:1 ratio. Participants in the intervention group will receive strategy training 2 times per week for 10-15 sessions and participants in the control group will receive dose-matched non-active intervention carried out by a trained therapist. These efforts will allow the investigators to address the gap in rehabilitation research by demonstrating the effectiveness of strategy training on rebuilding and maintaining executive functions and lessening disability. This evidence will be important for rehabilitation practitioners to provide effective treatment to patients with cognitive impairments and will contribute to the improvement of quality of care of rehabilitation services.

Conditions

• Cognitive Impairment
• Stroke
• Acquired Brain Injury

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Strategy Training	This approach is different from traditional direct skill training, which emphasizes clinicians' responsibility on identifying their patients' challenges in performing activities and teaching patients task-specific problem-solving strategies. Strategy training, on the other hand, requires clinicians to take a role as a facilitator, guiding participants to learn through prompts and questions. In the training process, participants learn to develop their own problem-solving strategies and work through the problems they have, through which they can develop self-efficacy and confidence to manage participation challenges. Participants can also generalize the strategies they learn to other similar problems they encounter in daily life.

Timeline

• Start date: 2018-05-29
• Primary completion: 2022-08-31
• Completion: 2024-09-30
• First posted: 2019-07-26
• Last updated: 2024-04-10

Locations

3 sites across 1 country: Taiwan