Rehabilitation for Disabled Stroke Patients in Rural China

Patients recruited into the intervention arm will have their family-nominated caregivers trained by a trained nurse and guided by a culturally appropriate and easy-to-understand rehabilitation manual to be given to caregivers at the last session, shortly before hospital discharge to reduce contamination. The training sessions will take at least 90 minutes per day for 2 or 3 days.The nurse will call the patients and caregivers at 2, 4, and 8 weeks after hospital discharge to monitor progress and offer guidance on rehabilitation.Duration of the standardized yet individualized intervention by nurses will be 8 weeks; however, trained caregivers are expected to deliver the rehabilitation services to patients as long as they are needed.