Data from: 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 young stroke
survivors aged 18 to 55 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.