Personal factors, participation, and satisfaction post-stroke: A qualitative exploration

Abstract

Background

Decreased participation and life satisfaction are common post-stroke. Exploratory studies have indicated associations between these outcomes and personal factors. Information remains limited and experiences of people with stroke are not well-represented or understood.

Aims/Objectives

The aim of this study was to explore how personal factors influence experiences of participation and life satisfaction for people with stroke living in the community.

Material and Methods

Qualitative in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight participants living in the community post-stroke, chosen purposively based on participation and life satisfaction levels. Data were interrogated using interpretative phenomenological analysis.

Results

Three themes were identified: (1) What does participation mean to me? (2) Looking forward or looking back, and (3) Appraisals, avoidance, and “getting on with it”. The first acknowledged the multifaceted nature of participation, although it was typically viewed as incorporating active involvement and social interaction. The additional two themes explored impacts of pre/post-stroke self-discrepancies and threat appraisals on participation and life satisfaction outcomes.

Conclusions and Significance

Relationships between participation and personal factors seem to be bidirectional. Life satisfaction appeared to be influenced by rumination on negative self-discrepancies based on difference in pre/post-stroke participation. Findings suggest there may be value in examining the influence of personal factor-related interventions on post-stroke outcomes.

Keywords:

• Cerebrovascular accident
• community
• occupational therapy
• quality of life
• rehabilitation
• self-appraisals
• self-concept
• threat appraisals

Acknowledgments

This study was completed as part of a Doctor of Philosophy program undertaken through The University of Queensland. The authors extend thanks to the study’s participants, who kindly volunteered their time to provide the valuable data that forms the basis of this study.

Ethical approval

The authors assert that all procedures contributing to this work comply with the ethical standards of the relevant national and institutional committees on human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit sector.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are not available due to ethical and privacy reasons as they contain information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.