The relation between language, non-verbal cognition and quality of life in people with aphasia

Background: People with aphasia (PWA) display a variety of non-linguistic cognitive profiles of impairments and strengths that interact not only with their specific profiles of language impairments and strengths, but also their potential for positive response to communication treatment, and potentially to their quality of life (QOL) post stroke. While researchers have investigated how severity of aphasic language impairment affects QOL, very few studies have examined how impairments in non-verbal cognition in PWA affect their QOL.Aims: The specific aims of this project were to further explore the relation between non-verbal cognitive and linguistic abilities in a group of PWA who were in the chronic phase post onset and to evaluate how impairments in these two domains related to QOL.Methods & Procedures: A group of 28 individuals with aphasia were tested with a language battery, a non-verbal cognition battery and an aphasia-friendly measure of QOL. The statistical analysis used an all-possible-subsets regression analysis.Outcomes & Results: Results indicated that non-verbal cognitive impairments predicted three times the variance on a measure of QOL than language impairments did. Non-verbal cognitive tasks that emerged as predictors included a trails task, a visual memory task, and a maze completion task. Results also indicated that 20 participants of the sample of 28 showed congruence of severity level across the domains of language and non-verbal cognition.Conclusions: Non-verbal cognitive impairments may significantly affect QOL in people with aphasia and should not be overlooked as potentially important predictors.