Title: The stroke and aphasia quality of life scale (SAQOL-39g) in Greek: Psychometric
1The stroke and aphasia quality of life scale
(SAQOL-39g) in Greek Psychometric evaluationK.
Hilari1, 3, E. Efstratiadou1,3, M. Ignatiou1, V.
Christaki1, E. Chelas1, I. Papathanasiou 1, 2,
3 1, Division of Language and Communication
Science, SHS, City University London,UK2Departmen
t of Speech and Language Therapy, TEI of Western
Greece Patras, Greece3Thalis Aphasia Project,
Department of Linguistics, School of Philosophy,
University of Athens, Greece
- Background
- Health-related quality of life (HRQL) reflects
the impact of a health state on a person's
ability to lead a fulfilling life.1 - HRQL measures allow the clinician to understand
and measure the impact of disease on a clients
life as a whole2, to evaluate the efficacy of
different therapeutic interventions and service
provisions3 and to incorporate the patient's
perspective in clinical decision-making.4 - The Stroke and Aphasia Quality of Life scale-39
item generic version (SAQOL-39g) is an English
questionnaire that measures HRQL in people with
stroke and aphasia. - SAQOL- 39 has been translated and culturally
adapted for use in Greece5, where currently there
is no other measure for the assessment of HRQL
with people with aphasia. - Current study
- Two studies were carried out to examine the
psychometric properties of the Greek SAQOL-39g - test-retest reliability
- proxy and self-report agreement and
- construct validity
-
- Study design
- Interview-based psychometric study.
- Participants were over six months post-stroke and
medically stable. They had to be gt 18 years old
and to score 7/15 on the receptive sub-tests of
the Frenchay Aphasia Screening Test (FAST) in
order to be able to self-complete the measures
used. - Number of participants
- Test-retest reliability was tested in a sample of
26 people with aphasia. - Proxy and self-report agreement was tested on 23
of the above sample and their partners. - Construct validity was tested on 60 people with
stroke 24 of whom had aphasia. - Measures
- Participants with stroke (/- aphasia) Greek
SAQOL-39g, General Health Questionnaire-12,
Frenchay Activities Index, Montreal Cognitive
Assessment and Barthel Index. - Proxies complete Greek SAQOL-39g proxy version,
General Health Questionnaire-12 and Caregiver
Strain Index. - All participants were interviewed once except of
the 26 participants which were tested for the
test-retest reliability. They were interviewed
two times in a period of 2-14 days in order to
collect test-retest reliability data for the
Greek SAQOL-39g
Participant characteristics Participant characteristics Participant characteristics
Variable Validity Test - retest
Participants n60() Participants n26()
Gender Female Male 13 (21.7) 47 (78.3) 6 (23.1) 20 (76.9)
Age Mean (S.D.) 66.68 (8.03) Range 42 86 Mean (S.D.) 60.7 (10.7) Range 39 - 81
Stroke type Ischaemic Haemorrhagic 36 (60) 24 (40) N/A N/A
Aphasia Aphasic No Aphasic 24 (40) 36 (60) 26 (100) 0 (0)
Results Results
Test retest reliability Scale Sub - domains ICC 0.96 ICC 0.89 0.97
Proxy and self-report agreement Scale Sub-domains ICC0.96 ICC0.83 0.99
Internal Consistency Overall score Sub domains a0.96 a0.83 0.99
Validity Convergent Validity Overall score Sub - domains Discriminant Validity Overall score Sub domains r 0.53 0.80 r 0.54 0.89 r0.52 r0.04 0.48
- Conclusions
- The Greek SAQOL-39g demonstrated excellent
test-retest reliability, proxy and self-report
agreement, internal consistency and good
convergent and discriminant validity. - The findings suggest that the Greek SAQOL-39g can
be used to evaluate health-related quality of
life in stroke survivors with and without
aphasia. - The results are in line with those of the
SAQOL-39g tested in the UK6. -
- Using the Greek SAQOL-39g, proxy raters can
provide useful information on the HRQL of PWA. - The client is the most appropriate source of
information on their own HRQL and proxy reports
should be used only when people with aphasia are
so severely affected that they are unable to
self-report.
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This research has been co-financed by the
European Union (European Social Fund ESF) and
Greek national funds through the Operational
Program "Education and Lifelong Learning" of the
National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) -
Research Funding Program THALIS UOA - "Levels
of impairment in Greek aphasia Relationship with
processing deficits, brain region, and
therapeutic implications", Principal
Investigator Spyridoula Varlokosta.