McAlister 2014.
| Study characteristics | ||
| Methods | RCT Unit of randomisation: participant |
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| Participants | Place of recruitment: outpatient clinic Numbers randomised: total: 279 (I: 143; C: 136) % Completing final follow‐up: 86% Inclusion criteria: ischaemic stroke or TIA confirmed by a stroke specialist at one of 3 clinics in Edmonton Canada, > 18 years age, systolic BP or LDL cholesterol above guideline‐recommended targets (average systolic BP over 2 visits > 140 mmHg, fasting LDL cholesterol > 2.0mmol/L or total: HDL cholesterol > 4.0) Type of stroke (%): stroke (I: 45.4% C: 40.4%), TIA (I: 51.1% C: 55.9%), ocular (I: 3.5% C: 3.7%) Mean age (SD): I: 68.8 (11.1); C: 66.6 (11.3) Gender (% men): I: 60.8%; C: 55.2% Ethnicity: not reported Socio‐economic or socio‐demographic status: not reported |
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| Interventions | Intervention details (components, length, frequency): the intervention group was managed by prescribing pharmacists who gave advice on lifestyle (exercise/low salt diet/smoking cessation/medication adherence), checked BP and LDL and initiated or titrated antihypertensive medication and/or lipid lowering therapy Location: community Mode of delivery: community Personnel responsible for delivery: nurse and a prescribing pharmacist Timing post‐stroke: not stated Control: the intervention group was compared to a group managed by a nurse who gave advice on lifestyle (exercise/low salt diet/smoking cessation/medication adherence), checked BP and LDL and then sent a list of the findings to the patients GP after each visit |
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| Outcomes | Proportion of participants at 6 months who attained optimal blood pressure (≤ 140 mmHg systolic BP) and fasting LDL cholesterol ≤ 2.0 mmol/L | |
| General Information | Funding: project‐specific funding for this trial was provided by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Alberta, the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research, and Knowledge Translation Canada Country of origin: Canada Publication language: English |
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| Notes | Analysis method: intention‐to ‐treat Risk of bias: low risk |
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| Risk of bias | ||
| Bias | Authors' judgement | Support for judgement |
| Random sequence generation (selection bias) | Low risk | Computer generated random numbers with variable sized blocked randomisation stratified by stroke prevention clinic to preserve allocation concealment |
| Allocation concealment (selection bias) | Low risk | Central allocation |
| Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes | Low risk | Missing data were imputed with a last observation carried forward strategy ‐ assumed no change in BP or lipid level. Missing data has been imputed using appropriate methods |
| Selective reporting (reporting bias) | Low risk | The protocol has been published previously |
| Other bias | Unclear risk | Unclear if recurrent events were presented as number of events rather than number of people with one or more event |