| dc.description.abstract | Background: There is a significant rise in the incidence of stroke worldwide. It is common for people with stroke (PWS) to sustain physical impairments and subsequently require rehabilitation services such as physiotherapy to gain partial to full functional independence. Physiotherapy services are available in most low-and- middle-income countries (LMICs), but there are various factors which affect their accessibility to people. Aim: This study aimed to explore factors affecting stroke patients’ access to physiotherapy services in a semi-rural township in South Africa. Methodology: A qualitative descriptive exploratory study was conducted. This involved the use of an interview guide with semi-structured interview questions to collect data from ten people with stroke. The participants were verbally recruited as they attended their scheduled physiotherapy appointments at Botshabelo District Hospital (BDH). The interview guide, informed consent form and participant information sheet were translated from English to Sesotho as this is the predominantly spoken language in Botshabelo. The interviews were audio recorded with permission from participants, transcribed verbatim and manually analysed using thematic coding analysis. Ethics approval was obtained from the University of the Western Cape’s Biomedical Research Ethics Committee (BMREC), University of the Free State’s Health Sciences Research Ethics Committee, Free State Provincial Department of Health (FSDoH) and Botshabelo District Hospital’s management. | en_US |
