Authors: Sally Zingelman Dominique A Cadilhac Joosup Kim Marissa Stone Sam Harvey Carolyn Unsworth Robyn O'Halloran Deborah Hersh Kathryn Mainstone Sarah J Wallace
The researchers wanted to find out:
People with aphasia and speech pathologists said that important changes are:
All the participants agreed on a rating scale answer that shows a small but important changes to people with aphasia.
We met with people with aphasia and speech pathologists online.
The Collaboration of Aphasia Trialists is an international group of aphasia researchers.
So we wanted to find out the opinions of people with aphasia and speech pathologists.
It is important for people with aphasia to set goals together with a speech pathologist.
Personal goals may help you make meaningful changes in your aphasia recovery.
Celebrating small improvements may support your motivation in rehabilitation.
We held online zoom meetings.
Then, we held one (1) consensus workshop for people with aphasia and speech pathologists.
This research did not include treatment.
Research tells us the most important information to measure in aphasia recovery is:
But, we don't know how much change is important to people with aphasia.
Important changes are changes that make a meaningful difference.
There were no risks to doing this research.
This is research about people's opinions.
The people who took part were:
All people were from Australia.
People with aphasia could take part if they had aphasia after a stroke.
Speech pathologists could take part if they worked in aphasia rehabilitation.
The research was done this way to understand people's opinions.
The research was done in April and May 2023.
The results only include the opinions of people who speak English.
People from different cultures or who speak different languages may have different opinions.
We are asking 200 people with aphasia in hospitals to rate their changes on the rating scale.
We will use this information to help to make test results easier to understand.
Knowing about important changes will also help people with aphasia to make important decisions about treatments.
Email Sally Zingelman: s.zingelman@uq.edu.au
The research was done online.
Money for this study came from a Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF 2021) -Cardiovascular Health Grant Opportunity.
The grant was awarded to Associate Professor Sarah Wallace.
The grant is called 'The right treatment for the right person at the right time. Driving high-value aphasia care through meaningful health system monitoring (MRF2016134).