Everyday Life Condition in Stroke Survivors and Their Family Caregivers in Iranian Context

Background: Stroke is an unexpected major life incident that effect on physical functioning and can lead to changes in lifestyle and inability to manage self care, work or leisure. To explore the everyday life situation as experienced by stroke survivors, and their family caregivers, this study was conducted 3-6 month after stroke. Methods: Twelve stroke survivors and thirteen family caregivers were interviewed and a qualitative content analysis was conducted to analyze data. Results: The results were categorized into two central themes that were identified as; (1) Being challenged by changes in everyday life situation including; the struggle with physical dysfunctions, inappropriate daily plan for leisure activities, changes in mood, being faced with economical problems and being worried about changing roles (2) striving to cope with new conditions including; trying to preserve self-worth, seeking to support from spirituality, learning and re-learning and regaining independency. Conclusion: Physical dysfunction was the major concern for both the survivors and their family caregivers in their everyday life situation. This problem led to, and forced them, to be dependent on others. Training is needed to teach stroke survivors and their families strategies of how to cope with and overcome ongoing challenges of everyday life after stroke and to re-organize their lives and improve skills of the survivors to deal with the new situation at home. A daily plan for spending their time and leisure activities would ease this work. More investigation will be needed to clarify the process of life after stroke to cover this gap