Background: Stroke is one of the leading causes of death in the United States. Aphasia is a language impairment which results as a consequence of stroke. Gender differences are reported in underlying mechanisms of stroke, however, gender differences in aphasia type and severity remain unclear.
Aims: To examine gender differences in aphasia impairment based on data from AphasiaBank, a research repository of data obtained from studies of aphasia.
Methods & procedures: The data were collected from AphasiaBank for 294 persons with aphasia (PWA) (172 men, 122 women). Baseline comparisons by gender groups were completed using independent samples t-tests and Pearson Chi square statistics. Univariate comparisons of the total Western Aphasia Battery-Revised (WAB-R) -AQ and -R subtests' scores were compared between the two groups using independent samples t-tests. Multivariate comparisons were completed by using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA).
Outcomes & results: Gender differences were observed in the severity of aphasia with men exhibiting more severe aphasia than women. Analyses of WAB-R indicated greater impairment among men based on AQ and greater impairment was observed in individual subtest performance. Men exhibited statistically significantly lower WAB-R AQs than women (67.4 versus 75.6). Lower WAB-R AQs were derived from lower scores among men on individual subtests; information content, fluency, repetition, sentence completion, responsive speech and tests of comprehension (yes/no, auditory word recognition and sequential commands).
Conclusions & implications: This study offers evidence of gender differences in aphasia severity, global communication impairment and lower scores on individual subtests used to derive the WAB-R AQ. The limitations of the study with suggestions for future directions are presented.
Keywords: aphasia outcomes; aphasia severity; gender differences; persons with aphasia; stroke.
© 2019 Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.