Abstract
The purpose of this study was to find out what kind of body image hemiplegic stroke patients have of themselves. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 7 hemiplegic stroke patients and analyzed the results using the revised grounded theory. We applied definitions to the data we obtained in the interviews and conceptualized them under the following four headings: perceptions of indistinctiveness of body; feelings of strange sensations; perceptions of reliable movement; and requirements of improvement of movement. Furthermore, we investigated the relationships among the concepts and categories we created and made a diagram of the results to present the overall picture of our analysis. The results suggest that it is possible to partially express the structure of the disability of the body image of hemiplegic stroke patients. We anticipate that qualitative research has a major role to play in the establishment of the the assessment of body image.
