Article

PURPOSE : To examine the quality of life (QoL) of people with aphasia and to study
the influence of variables such as age, time post onset and (degree of) social
support on the QoL of aphasic persons. METHOD: We compared the scores of an
aphasic population (N = 43) with those of a healthy control group (N = 43) and of
a group of patients with brain lesions without neurogenic communication disorders
(N = 43) on a Dutch version of the Stroke and Aphasia Quality of Life-scale
(SAQoL-39) and on a social support questionnaire. In half of the aphasic group,
the SAQoL-39 was re-administered 8 months after the first testing. RESULTS:
People with aphasia obtained significantly lower scores for QoL measures compared
with both other groups. Especially, communicative and psychosocial factors seem
to influence these results. Older people with aphasia scored lower than younger
persons and women tend to evaluate their QoL somewhat more negatively than men.
Persons who had aphasia for more than 6 months tended to have higher QoL-scores
compared with those who had become aphasic more recently. After 8 months, the
retested group scored significantly higher on communication and on psychosocial
functioning than on first testing. CONCLUSIONS: Gathering information on QoL
after suffering from stroke and from aphasia can lead to a better understanding
of the problems involved. The clinical use of instruments such as the SAQoL-39
can probably contribute to a more patient oriented rehabilitation, whereby the
focus not only lie in improving linguistic skills but also on reducing the
impairments and the handicaps that accompany aphasia and thus on increasing QoL.

Langue : ANGLAIS