Italian adaptation of the functional outcome questionnaire – aphasia: initial psychometric evaluation

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Italian version of Functional Outcome Questionnaire – Aphasia.

Methods: Two hundred and five persons with stroke-related aphasia and right hemiparesis who received ongoing assistance from a family caregiver were assessed using the Functional Outcome Questionnaire – Aphasia, Aachener Aphasie Test, Token Test, Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices, Functional Independence Measure (FIM), Functional Assessment Measure (FAM), and Quality of Life Questionnaire for Aphasics (QLQA). The Functional Outcome Questionnaire – Aphasia was translated into the Italian language using a translation and back-translation method. Reliability and construct validity of the Functional Outcome Questionnaire – Aphasia were evaluated.

Results: The Italian version of the Functional Outcome Questionnaire – Aphasia showed good internal consistency and test–retest reliability for the overall scale (α = 0.98; ICC = 0.95) and subscales (α = 0.89 for the communicating basic needs (CBN), α = 0.92 for the making routine requests (MRR), α = 0.96 for the communicating new information (CNI), α = 0.93 for the attention/other communication skills (AO); ICC = 0.95 for CBN, ICC = 0.96 for MRR, ICC = 0.97 for CNI and ICC = 0.92 for AO). Significant correlations were found between the Functional Outcome Questionnaire – Aphasia and Token Test, QLQA, Aachener Aphasie Test scores, and FAM linguistic scores, indicating good convergent validity. Low correlations were found between Functional Outcome Questionnaire – Aphasia and Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices and FIM motor scores, showing good discriminant validity.

Conclusions: The overall findings of this study supported the reliability and construct validity of the Italian version of the Functional Outcome Questionnaire – Aphasia. This measure holds considerable promise in assessing the functional outcomes of aphasia rehabilitation in Italian-speaking persons with aphasia.

Implications for Rehabilitation

• Functional Outcome Questionnaire – Aphasia is a reliable and valid questionnaire in assessing functional communication of Italian-speaking people with aphasia.

• This measure provides critical information about people with aphasia’s functional and pragmatic communication in home and community settings, contributing significantly to overall quality of life.

• Since the use of measures of functional communication is recommended in the clinical evaluation of language disease, the Italian version of Functional Outcome Questionnaire – Aphasia may be effective in tailoring rehabilitation treatment to the presenting communication problems of people with aphasia and their caregivers.

Keywords:

• Aphasia
• outcome
• communication
• rehabilitation

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.