Proceedings of the 8th World Conference on Research in Social Sciences
Year: 2025
DOI:
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Assessment of the quality of life in individuals with mixed aphasia based on their narrative discourse
Paulina Wójcik-Topór, Urszula Malina
ABSTRACT:
A neurological illness, such as a stroke, can cause aphasia, or speech disorders in sending and receiving information. At the same time, all the accompanying difficulties affect the patient’s quality of life, or the area of human life that is important to everyone. In this presentation, the subjective assessment of quality of life by patients diagnosed with mixed aphasia will be presented and discussed, based on our recent study in which we examined the cohesion and coherence of the discourse of Polish speakers with this speech disorder. In the first part of the presentation, we will show the most important reports from the literature on the impact of stroke and aphasia on quality of life. Then we will present an analysis of the statements of 24 patients diagnosed with mixed aphasia, who evaluated the impact of communication difficulties on daily functioning. The patients’ subjective assessment showed that aphasia affects their communication, their relationships with loved ones, as well as how they perceive themselves and the attitudes they adopt when having difficulties in functioning. With reference to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), it is important to note the limitations, but also the capabilities of people with aphasia, which will affect their social functioning. The analyzed data is part of a multilevel discourse study of Polish speakers diagnosed with mixed aphasia, including both local and global coherence and cohesion studies based on collected discourse samples.
keywords: quality of life, life with aphasia, discourse analysis, mixed aphasia, Polish speakers