The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Therapy and support services for people with long-term stroke and aphasia and their relatives: a six-month follow-up study

Therapy and support services for people with long-term stroke and aphasia and their relatives: a six-month follow-up study
Therapy and support services for people with long-term stroke and aphasia and their relatives: a six-month follow-up study
Objective: To evaluate the impact of attending an aphasia therapy centre on quality of life and communication skills in people with stroke and aphasia and their relatives.

Design: Before and after study, six months duration.

Setting: Community-based aphasia therapy centre in the United Kingdom.

Participants: Thirty-eight men and women with aphasia following a stroke, and 22 of their relatives. Mean time since stroke was 33 months (SD 24.1).

Interventions: A range of group therapies for people with aphasia and their relatives and counselling for individuals and couples.

Outcome measures: Quantitative outcome measures were ratings of quality of life and communication for people with aphasia, and relatives' independent ratings of communication and coping with caring. Qualitative outcomes were perceptions of quality of life and communication skills using semi-structured interviews.

Results: Improvement was detected on all outcomes at six months. There were significant changes from baseline on the quality of life measure, mean difference 0.14 (95% confidence interval 0.02, 0.26); and the communication measure assessed by people with aphasia and their relatives, mean difference 12.8 (4.0, 21.5) and 9.7 (3.6, 15.7) respectively. The changes on the coping with caring measure were not significant, though the direction of change was positive. Qualitative interviews revealed a similar pattern of benefit in terms of increased levels of self-confidence and changes in lifestyle and levels of independence.

Conclusions: The results suggest that this therapeutic approach has an impact on quality of life and communication for people with aphasia and their relatives.
0269-2155
372-380
van der Gaag, Anna
d6c83512-95b5-44bf-8c69-7c5fec0e6337
Smith, Lesley
c81de089-16f7-40cb-89c1-35c89d13ad6c
Moss, Becky
d361e5f8-fa27-456f-b548-00bfe2ec7877
Cornelius, Victoria
b75c21d7-2c25-495c-9107-e39453a72bdd
Laing, Susan
f0d426b2-baaa-4f8c-b5ee-d8a495a86088
Mowles, Chris
cd09b4a4-1fa7-42e1-b6fe-5b736a51c750
van der Gaag, Anna
d6c83512-95b5-44bf-8c69-7c5fec0e6337
Smith, Lesley
c81de089-16f7-40cb-89c1-35c89d13ad6c
Moss, Becky
d361e5f8-fa27-456f-b548-00bfe2ec7877
Cornelius, Victoria
b75c21d7-2c25-495c-9107-e39453a72bdd
Laing, Susan
f0d426b2-baaa-4f8c-b5ee-d8a495a86088
Mowles, Chris
cd09b4a4-1fa7-42e1-b6fe-5b736a51c750

van der Gaag, Anna, Smith, Lesley, Moss, Becky, Cornelius, Victoria, Laing, Susan and Mowles, Chris (2005) Therapy and support services for people with long-term stroke and aphasia and their relatives: a six-month follow-up study. Clinical Rehabilitation, 19 (4), 372-380. (doi:10.1191/0269215505cr785oa).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the impact of attending an aphasia therapy centre on quality of life and communication skills in people with stroke and aphasia and their relatives.

Design: Before and after study, six months duration.

Setting: Community-based aphasia therapy centre in the United Kingdom.

Participants: Thirty-eight men and women with aphasia following a stroke, and 22 of their relatives. Mean time since stroke was 33 months (SD 24.1).

Interventions: A range of group therapies for people with aphasia and their relatives and counselling for individuals and couples.

Outcome measures: Quantitative outcome measures were ratings of quality of life and communication for people with aphasia, and relatives' independent ratings of communication and coping with caring. Qualitative outcomes were perceptions of quality of life and communication skills using semi-structured interviews.

Results: Improvement was detected on all outcomes at six months. There were significant changes from baseline on the quality of life measure, mean difference 0.14 (95% confidence interval 0.02, 0.26); and the communication measure assessed by people with aphasia and their relatives, mean difference 12.8 (4.0, 21.5) and 9.7 (3.6, 15.7) respectively. The changes on the coping with caring measure were not significant, though the direction of change was positive. Qualitative interviews revealed a similar pattern of benefit in terms of increased levels of self-confidence and changes in lifestyle and levels of independence.

Conclusions: The results suggest that this therapeutic approach has an impact on quality of life and communication for people with aphasia and their relatives.

This record has no associated files available for download.

More information

Published date: April 2005

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 162319
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/162319
ISSN: 0269-2155
PURE UUID: 5eb21e34-e381-4b41-8a52-fade4251caa7

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 18 Aug 2010 13:37
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 02:02

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Anna van der Gaag
Author: Lesley Smith
Author: Becky Moss
Author: Victoria Cornelius
Author: Susan Laing
Author: Chris Mowles

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×