Living Successfully With Chronic Aphasia: Outcomes and Program Improvement After 5 Years of Operations

Objective: To evaluate the durability of quality-of-life outcomes after 5-years of participation in an Aphasia Center program using Life Participation Approach to Aphasia (LPAA) values. Design: Evidence-based practice quality improvement project. Setting: Ambulatory care Aphasia Center part of a larger health care system. Participants: Participants included 10 clients with aphasia; 2 women and 8 men with a mean age of 66.5 years. All participants had consistent participation in LPAA aphasia center services over a 5-year period (n=10). Interventions: Group programming was provided using the LPAA as the service delivery model. Main Outcome Measures: Client reported outcome measures were used. The Stroke and Aphasia Quality of Life Scale (SAQOL-39) was administered at 3 time periods: T1, baseline; T2, 1-year participation; and T3, 5-year participation. Program evaluation data were collected via a custom generated, self-reported electronic survey at the 5-year mark. Results: Outcomes indicated significant differences in self-reported quality-of-life scores from T1 to T2 and T1 to T3. No differences were observed between T2 to T3 for the mean score, physical domain, and communication domain of the SAQOL-39. Conclusions: The project provided further support for the use of LPAA values with clients experiencing chronic aphasia.