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. 2021 Nov 5;21(1):429.
doi: 10.1186/s12883-021-02463-7.

Seeking healthcare services post-stroke: a qualitative descriptive study exploring family caregiver and stroke survivor perspectives in an asian setting

Shilpa Tyagi  1 , Nan Luo  1 , Chuen Seng Tan  1 , Kelvin Bryan Tan  2 , Boon Yeow Tan  3 , Edward Menon  4 , N Venketasubramanian  5   6 , Wei Chin Loh  4 , Shu Hui Fan  4 , Kenneth Lam Thuan Yang  3 , Audrey Swee Ling Chan  1 , Aysha Farwin  1 , Zunairah Binti Lukman  1 , Gerald Choon-Huat Koh  7
Affiliations

Seeking healthcare services post-stroke: a qualitative descriptive study exploring family caregiver and stroke survivor perspectives in an asian setting

Shilpa Tyagi et al. BMC Neurol. .

Abstract

Aim: Exploration of the healthcare journey post-stroke is incomplete without acknowledging the crucial role of family caregivers. With limited literature documenting the role of caregivers in the healthcare journey post-stroke, we aimed to describe the healthcare experiences of family caregivers and stroke survivors across different caregiver identities in Singapore.

Methods: We conducted a qualitative descriptive study involving semi-structured interviews with transcripts analysed using thematic analysis. 26 stroke survivors and 35 family caregivers purposively sampled from multiple settings.

Results: Findings were summarized into seeking care and experience of healthcare encounters. Seeking care comprised of the following themes: factors influencing seeking care, decision to seek care and role of caregiver in seeking care. Experience of healthcare encounters comprised of the following themes: service around the patient, service with care and role of caregiver in healthcare encounters.

Conclusion: Multi-dimensional role of caregivers in healthcare experience emerged as a major finding. Unique to our Asian context, as per the participants' accounts, family caregivers seemed to be central in healthcare decision-making for stroke survivors, with adult-child caregivers commonly reported being engaged in collaborative decision-making. While spousal caregivers preferred a relational healthcare experience, adult-child caregivers preferred a transactional one. Practical implications include equipping caregivers with skillset to make healthcare decisions, provision of supportive decision-making environment for caregivers and reinforcing communication aspects in the medical, nursing and allied healthcare curriculum to improve healthcare experience.

Keywords: Caregiving; Family caregivers; Healthcare utilization; Qualitative research; Stroke.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Summary Diagram of main Findings
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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