Communication partner training for healthcare workers engaging with people with aphasia: Enacting Sustainable Development Goal 17 in Austria, Egypt, Greece, India and Serbia.

PURPOSE: This commentary describes how a grassroot-led partnership initiated by members of the organisations World Federation of NeuroRehabilitation and Collaboration of Aphasia Trialists is addressing the marginalisation of people with aphasia, through education and knowledge exchange related to communication partner training of health professionals. RESULT: A partnership between academics and healthcare professionals across Austria, Denmark, Egypt, Ireland, Greece, India, Serbia and the United Kingdom was established in 2020. Through bimonthly online sessions in 2021-2022 a Danish communication partner training program was introduced while six teams adapted and translated the training and its materials to their local contexts. CONCLUSION: A collaborative partnership enabled multiple translations of an existing communication partner training program for healthcare professionals working with people with aphasia to support a sustainable delivery model that is linguistic and culturally sensitive. This commentary paper focusses on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 17 and also addresses SDG 10.

A Systematic Review of Semantic Feature Analysis Therapy Studies for Aphasia.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to review treatment studies of semantic feature analysis (SFA) for persons with aphasia. The review documents how SFA is used, appraises the quality of the included studies, and evaluates the efficacy of SFA. Method: The following electronic databases were systematically searched (last search February 2017): Academic Search Complete, CINAHL Plus, E-journals, Health Policy Reference Centre, MEDLINE, PsycARTICLES, PsycINFO, and SocINDEX. The quality of the included studies was rated. Clinical efficacy was determined by calculating effect sizes (Cohen's d) or percent of nonoverlapping data when d could not be calculated. Results: Twenty-one studies were reviewed reporting on 55 persons with aphasia. SFA was used in 6 different types of studies: confrontation naming of nouns, confrontation naming of verbs, connected speech/discourse, group, multilingual, and studies where SFA was compared with other approaches. The quality of included studies was high (Single Case Experimental Design Scale average [range] = 9.55 [8.0-11]). Naming of trained items improved for 45 participants (81.82%). Effect sizes indicated that there was a small treatment effect. Conclusions: SFA leads to positive outcomes despite the variability of treatment procedures, dosage, duration, and variations to the traditional SFA protocol. Further research is warranted to examine the efficacy of SFA and generalization effects in larger controlled studies.

Quality of life after stroke: evaluation of the Greek SAQOL-39g.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Stroke and aphasia rehabilitation aims to improve people's quality of life. Yet, scales for measuring health-related quality of life in stroke typically exclude people with aphasia. They are also primarily available in English. An exception is the 39-item generic version of the Stroke and Aphasia Quality of Life Scale (SAQOL-39g). This scale has been tested with people with aphasia; it has been adapted for use in many countries including Greece. The aim of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Greek SAQOL-39g. METHODS: An interview-based psychometric study was carried out. Participants completed: receptive subtests of the Frenchay Aphasia Screening Test, the Greek SAQOL-39g, the 12-item General Health Questionnaire, the Frenchay Activities Index, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment and the Barthel Index. RESULTS: 86 people took part; 26 provided test-retest reliability data. The Greek SAQOL-39g demonstrated excellent acceptability (minimal missing data; no floor/ceiling effects), test-retest reliability [intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.96 (overall scale), 0.83-0.99 (domains)] and internal consistency [Cronbach's alpha = 0.96 (overall scale), 0.92-0.96 (domains)]. There was strong evidence for convergent [r = 0.53-0.80 (overall scale), 0.54-0.89 (domains)] and discriminant validity [r = 0.52 (overall scale), 0.04-0.48 (domains)]. CONCLUSION: The Greek SAQOL-39g is a valid and reliable scale. It is a promising measure for use in stroke and aphasia treatment prioritization, outcome measurement and service evaluation.