Putting the CAT-HR out: key properties and specificities

ABSTRACT

Background

The Comprehensive Aphasia Test (CAT) is a comprehensive test useful in establishing the language profiles of people with aphasia (PwA). Until the recent publication of the CAT-HR, there were no tests or language batteries in the Croatian language for evaluating language among PwA.

Aims

The aim of this paper is to present the results of PwA on tasks and modalities of the first Croatian language test developed for language assessment among PwA – the CAT-HR. To this end, their results are compared to that of neurologically healthy individuals (control group; CG). The relationship between PwA’s objective and self-perceived difficulties as measured by the CAT-HR are also described. This paper additionally outlines the entire process of developing the CAT-HR, emphasising the similarities and differences from the original version, and presenting some of its psychometric properties.

Methods & Procedures

The sample consisted of 114 PwA and 123 CG participants. PwA completed all three sections of the CAT-HR, while the CG completed only the Cognitive Screen and Language Battery. Their results were compared using independent t-tests with Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons. Correlations were calculated for all CAT-HR modalities. Finally, results of PwA on objective measures were compared with their self-assessment scores.

Outcomes & Results

The performed analyses indicate that the CG and PwA differ significantly on all tasks and modalities of the CAT-HR. Correlations among modalities within the Language Battery are significant, as well as those within the Disability Questionnaire. Language Battery modalities correlate significantly with all scales of the Disability Questionnaire, except with Emotional consequences.

Conclusions

The test has been demonstrated to possess promising psychometric properties, i.e. the internal consistency of its tasks and modalities ranges from moderate to high and the measures on the modality mean can discriminate 85% of PwA from neurologically healthy individuals. Results and findings are discussed with respect to their clinical and scientific implications. As a final point, limitations related to the analyses (e.g. lack of data on test-retest reliability and sensitivity), and suggestions for further research are provided.

KEYWORDS:

• The CAT-HR
• language assessment
• aphasia
• Croatian language

Acknowledgments

The adaptation of the original CAT was conducted within two projects: Adult Language Processing (HRZZ-2421-UIP-11-2013, head Jelena Kuvač Kraljević, 2014-2017) funded by the Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ) and the COST Action IS1208 Collaboration of Aphasia Trialists project (head Marian Brady, Glasgow Caledonian University, 2013-2017) within the Working Group 2. We are grateful to all members of WG 2 for their support in developing the CAT-HR. Our sincere appreciation goes to Valentina Ruzic, PhD for her assistance in statistical analyses and for the valuable comments on earlier drafts of the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.