Aphasia Had a More Negative Impact on a Person’s Quality of Life than Cancer or Alzheimer’s Disease, by Prof. Chris Code, University of Exeter

Lam and Wodchis (2010) recently conducted a large study of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in 66,193 residents in hospital-based long-term care in Ontario, Canada using the minimum data set Health-Status Index (MDS-HSI), a universally used measure based on a range of clinical assessments in all North American long-term care facilities.
Sophisticated regression analysis was used to estimate the impact of 60 diseases and 15 conditions on HRQoL. Aphasia showed the largest negative relationship to MDS-HIS, followed by cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. 

That means that aphasia had a larger negative impact on a person’s quality of life than cancer or Alzheimer’s disease.

Such dramatic demonstrations that aphasia has one of the most massive negative effects on an individual’s quality of life and their ability to engage in and with their family, friends and wider community should galvanise service providers into actions that result in significantly improved services for people with aphasia. The next stage must be to ensure that those who have the power to influence the provision of services from health and social systems are fully aware of the impact that aphasia can have and the impact that services for aphasic people and their relatives can have. 

Lam, J.M.C. & Wodchis, W. P. (2010) The relationship of 60 disease diagnoses and 15 conditions to preference-based health-related quality of life in Ontario hospital-based long-term care residents. Medical Care, 48, 380-387.