Adherence to pharmacological interventions for stroke

Many strokes are preventable with the management of modifiable risk factors with lifestyle or pharmacological interventions. Overall, ten risk factors including hypertension, atrial fibrillation and dyslipidaemia contributed to over 90% of the risk of stroke. It is currently unknown whether patients with these modifiable factors are being prescribed adequate prevention medications or whether they adhere to prescribed primary prevention treatments. The student will be working within the Big Data, Epidemiology and Prevention Division (Stroke and Ageing Research) from Monash University to: • evaluate published evidence related to risk factors for patients with stroke and primary prevention adherence to medication (phase 1) • describe the adherence to medications according to whether or not patients received medications before their stroke related to risk factors (phase 2) After obtaining ethics approval, the student will access large, linked databases and will be expected to complete a systematic review and conduct data analysis. The student is expected to summarise the work completed and their contributions to the research in a thesis by publication. With supportive supervision, the student will develop the following skills and experience during the research program: • Public Health Research • Theoretical and practical knowledge of statistical analysis • Ability to undertake a systematic literature review • Publication in high level scientific journals The project is most suitable for a PhD degree, however, modification to suit the requirements of a Masters by Research may be considered.