The impact of aphasia on the marital relationship from the perspective of people with post-stroke aphasia and their partners: a case-control study

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Aphasia is the result of neurological damage that leads to disorders in the individual’s expressive and/or receptive language. Communication difficulties adversely impact various aspects of the person’s life, and relationships are no exception. Marital relationships might be influenced by health conditions, and possibly by aphasia.

Objectives

This study aimed to compare marital adjustment between couples in which one of the people suffered a stroke and had aphasia with couples in which the person who had a stroke did not have aphasia.

Methods and Procedures

This is a cross-sectional case-control, quantitative and qualitative study, which included people affected by stroke and their spouses, in which one of the people in the dyad had post-stroke aphasia of expression (study group) or stroke without aphasia (control group). Data collection was carried out by applying the study’s own questionnaire and the Revised and Validated Dyadic Adjustment Scale, Portuguese version, (RDAS-P) in person or by phone.

Results

35 participants were included, who were divided into a study group (n = 11) and a control group (n = 11); their marital partners were classified into partners of the study group (n = 7) and partners of the control group (n = 6). No statistically significant difference was observed between the groups regarding sociodemographic and clinical data, nor regarding the outcomes of interest. Different correlations were found into the groups. Qualitative results showed differences in the perception of changes in relationships in each group.

Conclusions

There was no difference in measures of marital adjustment between individuals who had a stroke with and without aphasia. However, the varying correlations and reports found suggest that the groups experience marital issues differently.

KEYWORDS:

• Aphasia
• stroke
• marriage
• marital status
• speech
• language and hearing sciences

Acknowledgments

We thank the participants affected by stroke and their family members who made their time available to participate in this study. In particular, people with aphasia, despite their expression difficulties, answered the research questions in their way.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/02687038.2024.2357339