The Quality of Life Levels Among Individuals with Various Types of Aphasia

İbrahim Can Yaşa
Abstract

Purpose: It is very important to improve the quality of life (QoL) of individuals with aphasia (IwA) following stroke. Although it is known that aphasia affects QoL negatively, there is a need for studies to examine how QoL is affected considering different types of aphasia as this might have significant implcations on planning aphasia assessment and therapy. The aim of this study was to examine QoL levels among individuals with different types of aphasia. Method: A total of 49 IwA were included in the study and categorized into seven groups referring to each aphasia type. These groups consisted of non-fluent aphasia [Broca's aphasia (n=7); transcortical motor aphasia (n=7); mixed transcortical aphasia (n=7)]; and fluent aphasia [Wernicke's aphasia (n=7); transcortical sensory aphasia (n=7); anomic aphasia (n=7); and conduction aphasia (n=7)]. Turkish versions of Stroke Aphasic Depression Questionnaire-Hospital version 10 (SADQ-H10-TR), Aphasia Impact Questionnaire-21 (AIQ-21-TR), and Stroke and Aphasia Quality of Life Scale- 39 (SAQOL-39-TR) were used to measure QoL among IwA. Results: No difference was observed between fluent and non-fluent IwA in terms of age, gender, education level, employment status, dominant hand, post-onset time, and psychological treatment received. While the overall scores of AIQ-21-TR and SADQ- 10-TR were higher in non-fluent IwA compared with fluent ones, the overall score of SAQOL-39-TR was observed to be higher in fluent IwA compared to non-fluent IwA. The highest score in the overall score of AIQ-21-TR, including all subsections, was in the mixed transcortical aphasia group. According to the scores of SADQ-10-TR, the individuals with transcortical motor aphasia had the highest overall score and those with anomic aphasia had the lowest score. Conclusion: The results of the study showed differences within scores of all the scales that evaluated QoL among all types of aphasia, demonstrating that the QoL levels were affected differently considering all types of aphasia.


Keywords

quality of life, aphasia types, aphasia effect, depression, social participation


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