Current Research Activity
Research initiatives at the Aphasia Institute focus on observing what happens within on-site programs, exploring critical questions about the aphasia experience, and testing ideas on how to better deliver care and support.
Linkage of the ‘Assessment for Living with Aphasia’ to an economic Quality of Life Measure
Aphasia is a language problem most commonly caused by stroke and has a profound impact on quality of life. In the current era of scarce health care resources, decisions regarding service provision are based on whether it provides reasonable economic value. Typically health researchers use the Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY) as an outcome measure as it can be compared across interventions. However, there is a significant challenge when evaluating cost-effectiveness of aphasia interventions due to the language barrier. There is thus a need for a communicatively accessible method that can be used for individuals with language impairment. Once created, there would be additional benefit by linking scores on a psychometrically sound, communicatively accessible Quality of Life (QOL) measure designed specifically for aphasia. The only such measure is the recently developed and validated ‘Assessment for Living with Aphasia’ (ALA). This innovative pictographic tool is designed to expand the range of aphasia treatment outcome domains to align with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Classification of Function, Disability and Health (ICF) and integrate these domains with an evaluation of QOL. Therefore, we propose to develop and psychometrically validate an aphasia accessible version of the Time Trade Off (TTO) method for QALY determination. Further we will determine if the ALA may be used for QALY construction.
Communicative Access Measures for Stroke: Reliability and Usefulness
This project involves testing the psychometric properties of three questionnaires, called the Communicative Access Measures for Stroke (CAMS) which are to be used to collect data to describe communicative access of health-care institution systems. The term “communicative access” is being used to refer to the ability of people with communication disorders to gain access to services, understand information and make informed decisions regarding their health care. We aim to disseminate the institutional and staff questionnaires through a user friendly and anonymous web-based system and than analyze the data to determine the validity and reliability of these instruments. If successful, with a valid, reliable, and easily accessible instrument, administrators and policy-makers, as well as other stakeholders will, at minimal expense of time or resource, be able to assess a facilities’ compliance with communicative access. This will also provide researchers with definitive tools to provide an environmental scan of communicative access in Ontario.
Funding from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care through the Ontario Stroke Network is gratefully acknowledged.
Conducting Research at Aphasia Institute
Download our Research package to find out the requirements for submission of a research proposal to the Aphasia Institute Quality, Research and Ethics Committee.
Please contact the Administrative Assistant at nalfano@aphasia.ca or 416-226-3636 ext. 27.