Abstract

Approximately one million people in the United States suffer from aphasia. There are multiple types of aphasia, however they are usually placed into two categories: non-fluent or fluent. The psychosocial factors that are impacted due to the type of aphasia has not been systematically investigated. The purpose of this study is to examine how non-fluent and fluent Individuals With Aphasia (IWA) compare or contrast across three psychosocial factors, Quality of Life (QoL), coping style, and resilience. The World Health Quality of Life- BREF (WHOQOL-BREF), Assimilative-Accommodative Coping Scale (AACS), and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale-10 item version (CD-RISC-10), were administered once to 24 subjects with a diagnosis of aphasia. Four of the subjects were excluded after administration, due to incompletion of questionnaire or not meeting inclusion criteria. A cross sectional multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) study design was utilized with a separate one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) utilized to analyze each domain and scale individually. Results from the MANOVA analysis showed no statistically significant difference between non-fluent and fluent IWA when considered jointly among the three Likert scales. However, a separate ANOVA was conducted for each scale individually and showed a statistically significant difference between fluent and non-fluent IWA in the domains of Social Relationships and Environment for the WHOQOL-BREF scale. There was no statistically significant difference discovered among the other domains and scales. In conclusion, the significant difference found between fluent and non-fluent IWA in the domains of Social Relationships and Environment, may be due to the majority of the fluent IWA being categorized as anomic, a higher functioning form of aphasia. Whereas the majority of non-fluent IWA were categorized as having Broca’s aphasia, which greatly affects speech output and, in six out of nine participants, hemiplegia was noted. Future research may want to take into account the severity of aphasia when comparing and contrasting non-fluent and fluent IWA.

Thesis Completion

2016

Semester

Fall

Thesis Chair/Advisor

Whiteside, Janet D.

Degree

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)

College

College of Health and Public Affairs

Department

Communication Sciences and Disorders

Degree Program

Communication Sciences and Disorders

Location

Orlando (Main) Campus

Language

English

Access Status

Open Access

Release Date

December 2016

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