Objective We aimed to explore views of people with stroke regarding aerobic exercise participation during rehabilitation.

Design Qualitative descriptive study informed by a pragmatic worldview.

Setting and participants People with stroke attended online or in-person one-on-one semi-structured interviews focused on their general attitudes about aerobic exercise, and their capability, motivation and opportunities to exercise that have or have not been provided during rehabilitation after stroke.

Data analysis Codebook thematic analysis was performed by two independent coders. Results: Thirteen people, 2 to 10 months post-stroke participated in the interviews. Six themes were identified: 1) having an exercise program routine and trusting the physiotherapist during rehabilitation facilitated doing exercise ; 2) emotions can make exercise during rehabilitation more or less difficult; 3) limited physical ability post stroke leads to poor exercise self-efficacy and sense of control; 4) knowledge of what exercise is and its benefits affects perseverance in exercising during rehabilitation; 5) personal identity affects perseverance in doing exercises during rehabilitation; and 6) environmental factors facilitate exercise performance (consisting of two sub-themes of supportive social environment promotes exercise participation, and more resources (e.g., time, space, staff, other programs) facilitate exercising during and after rehabilitation).

Conclusions People with stroke are more likely to engage in aerobic exercise if it is incorporated into their treatment plan. This novel finding could help ensure physiotherapists prescribe aerobic exercise during stroke rehabilitation.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

This study was supported by grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR PJT-148906 & PJT-173472). The funders played no role in the design, conduct, or reporting of this study.

I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained.

Yes

The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

The research ethics boards of all participating sites (i.e., Kite Research institute and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre) approved the study.

I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals.

Yes

I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).

Yes

I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable.

Yes

* New affiliations of these authors are included at the end.

Statements and declarations

Ethical considerations The research ethics boards of all participating sites (i.e., Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre) approved the study.

Consent to participate If patients agreed, they were approached by the research assistant, who discussed the study with them, answered any questions that they may have had, and obtained written informed consent.

Declaration of conflicting interest The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article

Funding statement This study was supported by grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR PJT-148906 & PJT-173472). The funders played no role in the design, conduct, or reporting of this study.

Data availability statement Consent was not obtained for interview transcripts to be shared with third parties.

New Affiliation of the authors

Azadeh Barzideh, Methodological and Implementation Research Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada

Augustine Joshua Devasahayam, Department of Research and Innovation, Newfoundland and Labrador Health Sciences, St. John’s, NL, Canada

Consent was not obtained for interview transcripts to be shared with third parties.