Développement d'un instrument d'évaluation de l'anomie tenant compte de l'effet de re-test

Abstract

Summary Development of an instrument to assess anomia taking into account the effect of re-testWord-finding difficulties (anomia) are a common symptom in aphasia. The aim of this study was to develop a tool in confrontation naming (1.) to diagnose anomia and (2.) to measure a patient's improvement or worsening beyond the effect of re-test. Moreover, this study was an example of how to evaluate a re-test effect in general. The tool can be used for patients with moderate anomia in the age of 48 to 67 years. A total of 180 images with a name agreement of at least 75% were selected. Low frequency words constitute 60% of these images. To diagnose anomia, the performance of a new patient was compared with the performance of a reference sample consisting of 38 healthy subjects. To measure evolution the reference sample consisted of 30 healthy subjects and 21 aphasic patients in chronic state. All subjects were native French speakers over 48 years old. To the participants of the diagnostic group the 180 images were presented once, and to the sample measuring evolution they were presented twice, with an average time difference of 41 days. To diagnose anomia, a table was created indicating the amount of people with a lower score in percentiles. In order to determine the evolution of a new aphasic patient, the table indicates whether he or she has a significantly larger or smaller evolution between pre-and post-test than the people of the reference sample. Age can be taken into account as a predictor variable for the change. This allows a more accurate detection of the evolution. The average time difference of 41 days found in the reference sample must be approximately taken into account with a new patient when the norms presented here are applied.