The personal and social experiences of community-dwelling younger adults after stroke in Australia: a qualitative interview study

Objectives To examine the personal and social experiences of younger adults after stroke. Design Qualitative study design involving in-depth semi-structured interviews and rigorous qualitative descriptive analysis informed by social constructionism. Participants Nineteen younger stroke survivors aged 18 to 55 years at the time of their first-ever stroke. Setting Participants were recruited from urban and rural settings across Australia. Interviews took place in a clinic room of the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health (Melbourne, Australia), over an online conference platform or by telephone. Results Four main themes emerged from the discourses: (1) psycho-emotional experiences after young stroke; (2) losing pre-stroke life construct and relationships; (3) recovering and adapting after young stroke; and (4) invalidated by the old-age, physical concept of stroke. While these themes ran through the narratives of all participants, data analysis also drew out interesting variation between individual experiences. Conclusions For many younger adults, stroke is an unexpected and devastating life event that profoundly diverts their biography and presents complex and continued challenges to fulfilling age-normative roles. While adaptation, resilience and post-traumatic growth are common, this study suggests that more bespoke support is needed for younger adults after stroke. Increasing public awareness of young stroke is also important, as is increased research attention to this problem.