Table 3.
Categories of personal factors derived from the thematic analysis.
| Core category | Category | Subcategory | Patients' narratives |
|---|---|---|---|
| Patients' goals | Individual goals of activities and functions | Achievement goals pertaining to activities | “My goal is to recover my physical condition as soon as possible to get back to the same daily routine as before. Because of this, I can expend efforts on daily rehabilitation” (aged ≥ 65 years, Male 2). |
| Goals for improvement of function and activity | “I want to be able to control my body freely again. Toward this end, I work hard to continue my rehabilitation” (aged < 65 years, Male 5). | ||
| Role as a family member | Role as a housewife | “I hope that I will return home and regain my role as a housewife after discharge. When thinking about this goal, I understand what is necessary for me to do now” (aged < 65 years, Female 2). | |
| Role as a supporting family member | “Preparing meals has been my role. So, I am thinking now that I want to continue this role after discharged home” (aged ≥ 65 years, Female 1). | ||
| Hope to acquire independence to reduce the burden on one's family‡ | “If my walk is still unstable when I get discharged from hospital to home, it may be burdensome for my family. I don't want to bother my family” (aged ≥ 65 years, Male 7). | ||
| Social participation | Hope to return to work | “My goal is returning to work. When I am thinking about that goal, I feel motivated and think that I should put much effort into my rehabilitation” (aged < 65 years, Male 7). “My goal is to return to my previous work. That is my motivation for rehabilitation” (aged ≥ 65 years, Male 5). | |
| Hobby | “I really like to play golf. I have to do training [to] play that” (aged ≥ 65 years, Male 3). | ||
| Interaction with friends† | “I love to drink with friends. So, I have to be able to pick up a beer mug with my hand. To go to drink with friends again, I know that I should do rehabilitation” (aged < 65 years, Male 1). | ||
| Discharge to home | “I want to go home and get back to my previous life as soon as possible. So, I should do what I have to do” (aged < 65 years, Male 6). | ||
| Discrepancy between expected goal and reality† | “I had expected that I would have been able to walk without a cane by this time and would be preparing for the discharge by now. But the reality is not what I had expected; I am still using a wheelchair. The discrepancy between the hospitalization length I expected and reality makes me lose motivation” (aged < 65 years, Male 3). | ||
| Experiences of success and failure | Success experiences | Recovery from impairments and disability | “Motivation will be very high when I am able to do that [which] I couldn't do 1 week ago” (aged < 65 years, Male 3). |
| Expansion of permitted range of activities in the hospital‡ | “I want to expand my activity space. Then, I could go to a shop in the hospital, for example” (aged ≥ 65 years, Male 7). | ||
| Failure experiences | Discrepancy between expectations and real performance of the tasks | “Sometimes I became disappointed that I couldn't do an easy task that I could do before” (aged ≥ 65 years, Male 3). | |
| Stagnation of the recovery† | “I was depressed when my movement was worse than it was yesterday” (aged < 65 years, Female 4). | ||
| Repetitions of failure experiences† | “When I fail something repeatedly, [my] motivation [decreases]” (aged < 65 years, Male 6). | ||
| Physical condition and cognitive function | Physical condition | Fatigue | “I make an effort to do more when I have more physical strength; but I want to lie down when I am tired” (aged ≥ 65 years, Female 1). |
| Physical weakness | “I lose weight when I can't eat my meals. Then, my physical strength decreases. In such cases, I don't feel like participating in rehabilitation” (aged ≥ 65 years, Female 1). | ||
| Pain | “Motivation decreases when I can't do any daily rehabilitation training due to pain” (aged < 65 years, Male 3). “I'm worried that hard training may cause bad physical conditions such as muscle pain” (aged < 65 years, Male 1). | ||
| Worsening of numbness† | “Some changes such as pain or numbness in my body reduced my motivation” (aged < 65 years, Male 9). | ||
| Cognitive function‡ | “I am here to do rehabilitation. We need to recognize why we are in this hospital. If I cannot understand the purpose of my training because of dementia, I cannot keep [my] motivation high” (aged ≥ 65 years, Female 10). | ||
| Resilience | “I recognize my disability. I need to live with this disability” (aged < 65 years, Male 8). “When a doctor said to me that I could have sequelae, I realized that I must make a tremendous effort for my own rehabilitation. I will be in trouble if I can't walk” (aged ≥ 65 years, Female 9). |
†
Only for participants aged < 65 years;
‡
Only for participants aged ≥ 65 years.