Italian adaptation of the functional outcome questionnaire - aphasia: initial psychometric evaluation

Purpose: To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Italian version of Functional Outcome Questionnaire - Aphasia. Methods: Two hundred and five persons with stroke-related aphasia and right hemiparesis who received ongoing assistance from a family caregiver were assessed using the Functional Outcome Questionnaire - Aphasia, Aachener Aphasie Test, Token Test, Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices, Functional Independence Measure (FIM), Functional Assessment Measure (FAM), and Quality of Life Questionnaire for Aphasics (QLQA). The Functional Outcome Questionnaire - Aphasia was translated into the Italian language using a translation and back-translation method. Reliability and construct validity of the Functional Outcome Questionnaire - Aphasia were evaluated. Results: The Italian version of the Functional Outcome Questionnaire - Aphasia showed good internal consistency and test-retest reliability for the overall scale (alpha = 0.98; ICC = 0.95) and subscales (alpha = 0.89 for the communicating basic needs (CBN), alpha = 0.92 for the making routine requests (MRR), alpha = 0.96 for the communicating new information (CNI), alpha = 0.93 for the attention/other communication skills (AO); ICC = 0.95 for CBN, ICC = 0.96 for MRR, ICC = 0.97 for CNI and ICC = 0.92 for AO). Significant correlations were found between the Functional Outcome Questionnaire - Aphasia and Token Test, QLQA, Aachener Aphasie Test scores, and FAM linguistic scores, indicating good convergent validity. Low correlations were found between Functional Outcome Questionnaire - Aphasia and Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices and FIM motor scores, showing good discriminant validity. Conclusions: The overall findings of this study supported the reliability and construct validity of the Italian version of the Functional Outcome Questionnaire - Aphasia. This measure holds considerable promise in assessing the functional outcomes of aphasia rehabilitation in Italian-speaking persons with aphasia.