Aphasia rate and user profile in a public referral hospital

ABSTRACT

Purpose  To identify the rate of aphasia in users admitted to a public referral hospital and to characterize the sociodemographic and clinical profile of the sample studied.

Methods  A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out based on analysis of medical records and a brief bedside speech-language assessment. The study included younger or older adults, of both sexes, native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese, with stroke in the acute or subacute phase.

Results  In a 3-month period, 13 users met the inclusion criteria, of whom 9 agreed to participate and 7 were evaluated. Three participants had aphasia, representing 42.8% of cases. Regarding the profile of the 9 participants, the majority were women, elderly and had medium educational level. The three users in the subgroup with initial diagnosis of aphasia had moderate-to-severe aphasia secondary to cortical-subcortical lesions.

Conclusion  Given the rate of aphasia cases found among users hospitalized for primary acute and subacute strokes and the characteristics of this group, efforts toward providing health care for this population and mapping cases in other regions of the state and country are fundamental.

Keywords:  Aphasia; Evaluation; Epidemiology; Health status indicators; Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences