Quality of life in aphasia:: Validation of a pictorial self-rating procedure

Methods & Procedures: Quality of life was assessed for stroke patients with aphasia in postacute and chronic stages by means of the Aachen Life Quality Inventory (ALQI), a German adaptation of the Sickness Impact Profile (SIP). A modified written version of the ALQI was given to relatives, and a newly developed pictorial version designed to minimise language demands was given to aphasic patients. Ratings of 24 patient-relative pairs were assessed. Outcomes & Results: Overall the two versions were found to be highly parallel and internally consistent, and they could be separated equally well along physical and psychosocial dimensions. In addition to rating complaints, patients were asked to score the burden caused by them; high intercorrelations between complaints and burden were found. The physical subscore was influenced by presence and degree of hemiparesis, and the psychosocial subscore by patients' mood state as rated by the relatives. Age had an impact on relatives' ratings of language and cognition as well as on physical functions. Patients and relatives differed in rating of psychosocial and cognitive complaints. Relatives took a more functional perspective, patient ratings were more dependent upon degree and quality of the aphasic impairment.