The Effect Of Cognitive Intervention On Language Function And Quality Of Life In Elderly Patients With Post-Stroke Aphasia

Objective\r\nTo investigate the effect of cognitive intervention on language function and quality of life (QOL) in elderly patients with post-stroke aphasia.\r\n\r\n\r\nMethods\r\nFifty-five elderly patients with post-stroke aphasia were randomly divided into the control group (n=27) and the experimental group (n=28). The control group received comprehensive treatment including speech-language therapy (SLT), while the experimental group was subjected to additional cognitive intervention. All patients were enrolled in an eight-week rehabilitation program. The mini-mental state examination (MMSE) was used to assess cognitive function, a device for diagnosis and treatment of language disorders, ZM 2.1, was used to evaluate language function, and the 36-item short-form health survey (SF-36) (Chinese version) was used to assess quality of life (QOL), before and after treatment.\r\n\r\n\r\nResults\r\nAfter treatment, MMSE scores, language function scores in all categories and QOL scores in all dimensions improved in both groups (P\u003c0.05 for both). Furthermore, after treatment, there were significant differences between the two groups in MMSE scores of orientation, recall, attention and calculation, and in scores of overall language ability and the individual categories (P\u003c0.05 for all). Scores of the experimental group vs. the control group for the individual categories of language function were as follows: simple instructions (76.6±14.1 vs. 67.4±19.3), complex instructions (66.1±12.8 vs. 58.2±14.9), yes or no (72.5±12.1 vs. 63.0±14.1), naming (55.0 19.5 vs. 43.3±22.2), simple comprehension (67.5±21.4 vs. 55.6±20.6), complex comprehension (44.8±17.0 vs. 35.0±18.9), listening and reading words (65.4±16.7 vs.53.7±19.3), calculation (39.3±25.8 vs.25.9±19.2), memory (36.4±18.7 vs. 26.3±17.8), matching (75.9±18.6 vs. 65.3±17.1), simple general knowledge (68.3±18.2 vs. 58.0±19.5), complex general knowledge (58.7±17.4 vs. 50.0±13.3), orientation (70.7±19.6 vs. 60.5±17.2) and comparison (59.9±14.6 vs. 50.2±17.5) (P\u003c0.05 for all). There were significant differences between the two groups in emotional function (66.7±18.2 vs. 53.1±21.2), general health (67.2±12.6 vs. 60.7±9.8), mental health (71.0±5.6 vs. 63.1±4.2), social functioning (64.7±9.0 vs. 59.3±10.2) and vitality (55.4±14.8 vs. 46.9±15.6) ( P\u003c0.05 for all).\r\n\r\n\r\nConclusions\r\nCognitive intervention combined with SLT can contribute to the recovery of language function and the improvement of QOL in elderly patients with post-stroke aphasia.\r\n\r\n\r\nKey words: \r\nStroke; Aphasia; Cognitive therapy; Quality of life