Quantifying Experiences with Telepractice for Aphasia Therapy: A Text Mining Analysis of Client Response Data

Abstract

Measures of satisfaction following treatment for aphasia have been limited. The challenge associated with reduced verbal output among many persons with aphasia (PWA) has reportedly been a key reason measures of treatment satisfaction have been limited. A novel approach to measure treatment satisfaction is the use of content analysis (CA), which uses the presence of certain words, themes, or concepts to explore outcomes such as treatment satisfaction particularly among individuals who generate limited output. CA utilizes responses and response patterns to assign meaning to client responses. The aim of this study was to use CA to measure posttreatment satisfaction with a telepractice approach for aphasia treatment. Seventeen PWA received 12 treatment sessions over a 6-week period. At the conclusion of the treatment, CA was utilized to explore patient satisfaction with this treatment approach. The participants reported an overall positive sentiment for the telepractice approach. Two primary topics emerged which were healthcare provider and healthcare delivery, where text analysis revealed discussion of these topics to be centered around being “helpful” and “being effective.” This study demonstrated that CA can be an effective approach for determining satisfaction with aphasia treatment particularly among PWA with limited verbal abilities.

Health Economics in Speech-Language Pathology

“…Ellis and Jacobs 15 review current literature applying health economics study to aphasia, then identify avenues for future research in this area. In their paper, Ellis and Jacobs identify the costs associated with aphasia and how this burden is distributed.…”