Applying the Correlation Between Aphasia Severity and Quality of Life Measures to a Life Participation Approach to Aphasia

Abstract

When clinicians are operating under a Life Participation Approach to Aphasia (LPAA) while treating persons with aphasia (PWAs), one measurement used to quantify outcomes is quality of life (QOL). Studies of QOL after stroke have identified multiple factors as cause agents. There is not an extensive body of research in the literature that compares the extent of aphasia and QOL and no literature as to how this applies in an LPAA. This article reports a comparison of aphasia quotients obtained from the Western Aphasia Battery-Revised with QOL scores obtained from the Stroke and Aphasia Quality of Life Scale-39 and discusses how the results are incorporated into long-term communication programs at a community-based center that employs an LPAA.

Keywords:

• aphasia
• Life Participation Approach to Aphasia
• neuroplasticity
• PWA
• quality of life