“I’m Not the Same Person Anymore”: Sociocultural Lived Experiences of Stroke Recovery in Malaysia

Abstract

Recovery following stroke is often described in terms of physical outcomes and individual effort. However, these perspectives may overlook how recovery is experienced within everyday social and cultural contexts. This study is significant as, in culturally diverse settings such as Malaysia, recovery is closely intertwined with shared beliefs, social expectations, and daily practices. Stroke survivors may draw on a mix of biomedical care, traditional understandings of illness, and religious beliefs as they navigate recovery. Exploring these influences can offer a more grounded understanding of how recovery unfolds in real-life contexts. This study aimed to explore how stroke survivors make sense of their experiences of community reintegration within their sociocultural contexts. The objective of this study is to interpret how sociocultural influences shape stroke survivors’ experiences of recovery and community reintegration. This study employed the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) as outlined by Pietkiewicz and Smith (2014) as the methodology. Thirteen stroke survivors participated in the study through purposive recruitment. The researcher conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews, audio-recorded them, and transcribed them verbatim. The data were analyzed in stages, starting with each case before identifying patterns across participants. The limitations of the study are that the findings are based on participants’ subjective accounts and the researcher’s interpretation, which may influence how the data are understood. Moreover, some participants were accompanied by caregivers during interviews due to functional limitations and caregiver concern, which may have influenced how experiences were expressed. Three themes emerged from the findings, illustrating how stroke survivors experience recovery within sociocultural contexts: Making Sense of Illness and Recovery Through Sociocultural, Spiritual, and Embodied Understandings (n = 11), Reconstructing and Negotiating the Self Within Sociocultural Contexts (n = 12), and Navigating Treatment Choices Within Pluralistic and Socioculturally Influenced Approaches (n = 7). These themes highlight how recovery is shaped by culturally and spiritually grounded interpretations, ongoing identity and social role renegotiation, and active navigation of multiple treatment approaches. Together, they demonstrate that recovery is not solely an individual or biomedical process but a dynamic, socioculturally embedded experience. These findings suggest that stroke recovery is not only a medical or individual process but also one shaped by social and cultural contexts. Rehabilitation approaches may benefit from greater flexibility and responsiveness to the different ways individuals draw on beliefs, relationships, and everyday practices in their recovery.