Relationships between language-based disability and quality of life in chronically aphasic adults

Background: A growing consensus among speech-language pathologists that treatment goals should be significant to the consumer and society has spurred clinicians to address stroke survivors' quality of life (QOL) as a possible target for remediation. Use of formal measures to detect decreased QOL presumes that test performance of aphasic patients is different from that of non-brain-injured (NBI) adults. Treatment directed towards decreased QOL presupposes that its symptoms are attributable to a diagnosis of aphasia. Differential performance for chronically aphasic and NBI adults on two QOL measures has been established. However, relationships between residual language and/or communication deficits and QOL have not been confirmed. Aims: We examined relationships between residual language and/or communication deficits and QOL to determine whether, within NBI adult and chronically aphasic adult groups, there are significant relationships between language impairment and QOL measures; whether there are signific...