Verbal comprehension ability in aphasia: demographic and lexical knowledge effects.
BACKGROUND
Assessment of sentence-level auditory comprehension can be performed with a variety of tests varying in response requirements. A brief and easy to administer measure, not requiring an overt verbal or a complex motor response, is essential in any test battery for aphasia.


OBJECTIVE
The present study examines the clinical utility of receptive language indices for individuals with aphasia based on the Comprehension of Instructions in Greek (CIG), a variant of the Token Test, and the Greek version of PPVT-R.


METHODS
Normative data from a large community sample of Greek adults aged 46-80 years was available on both measures. A word-level-independent measure of auditory comprehension was computed as the standard score difference between the two tests and used to compare patients with and without comprehension deficits as indicated by their Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination profile.


CONCLUSIONS
Indices of internal consistency and test-retest reliability were very good. Education and age effects on performance were significant, with the former being stronger. The potential clinical utility of differential ability indices (contrasting sentence- and word-level auditory comprehension tests) is discussed.
School of Medicine, University of Crete, Voutes Campus, 71003 Heraklion, Greece.
Panagiotis G
PG
Simos
School of Medicine, University of Crete, Voutes Campus, 71003 Heraklion, Greece.
Dimitrios
D
Kasselimis
Department of Neurology, University of Athens Medical School, Greece.
Constantin
C
Potagas
Department of Neurology, University of Athens Medical School, Greece.
Ioannis
I
Evdokimidis
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001037:Aphasia / Q000523:psychology*; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D007802:Language; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013067:Speech Perception