Problem
As summarised in the Abstractof the publication by Cadilhacet al. (2022), "many survivorsof stroke feel inadequately prepared for life back in the community with many reporting unmet needs". Thereis some evidence in the literature that eHealth messaging with clinically relevant information might be useful in this context but the effectiveness has not been "comprehensively assessed" - which in short is likely to mean that no randomised controlled trials have been performed (yet) to provide the necessary robust evidence to change policy and practice to roll out these support measures.
The proposed randomised controlled trial will include patients who are due to be discharged from hospital after a confirmed stroke and are aged over 18 years with internet/mobile phone access. They will be randomly allocated to one of two groups where they will receive:
Treatment: text messages with individualised clinician input that (for instance) relate to specific patient goals they have set for themselves.
Control: text messages with no clinician input that (for instance) tell them to remember their goals and look for resources.
Patients will be monitored over 90 days after discharge to determine whether they are re-admitted to hospital at any time during this period.
Question: Carefully state the Null and Alternative Hypotheses for the study.