Abstract: Objective To understand the self-advocacy experience of stroke patients during rehabilitation, and to provide reference for formulating targeted interventions. Methods Social ecological model was employed as the theoretical framework in the study. Purposive sampling was used to select 18 stroke patients during rehabilitation as the interview objects. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted and the data were analyzed by Colaizzi seven-step method. Results The following 3 themes and 10 sub-themes were summarized: coexisting of micro system-advocacy needs and problems (self-advocacy needs, weak self-advocacy consciousness, difficulty in advocacy due to body function decline, inadequate professional knowledge affecting advocacy competency, negative emotions affecting advocacy motivation); poor meso system-social network and communication (insufficient family and community support, single access to health knowledge, and barriers to doctor-patient communication); weak macro system-rehabilitation support system (immature continuous rehabilitation system, and shortage of community rehabilitation medical staff). Conclusion Patients in the rehabilitation period of stroke have the need of advocacy, but their advocacy level is affected by their own ability and negative emotions. Perfect social network and rich communication channels are the focus of self-advocacy for stroke patients during rehabilitation. The establishment of a mature continuous rehabilitation system and the strengthening of community-level medical rehabilitation support are conducive to promoting patients’ right to better self-advocacy.

Key words: social-ecological model, stroke, self-advocacy, qualitative research