Authors' objectives: BACKGROUND: Aphasia, a language problem caused by a stroke-related damage in the language area of the brain, affects about 50,600 people in the UK every year. People with aphasia may have difficulty speaking, understanding speech, reading and writing. Speech and language therapy for aphasia after stroke is beneficial. However, therapists have little information to support them in predicting someone s recovery and need better information on the best dosage and delivery of therapy; How often? How long? Which approach? Some therapies may suit some patients better than others. We believe that the best approach to providing therapy is to tailor it to each patient's needs and prognoses. AIM: We want to explore how patients profiles (including for example their age, sex, stroke, whether they are right of left handed), their language problems and the therapy they receive impact on the recovery of their language after stroke. BENEFITS TO PATIENTS AND NHS: A James Lind Alliance partnership between stroke survivors, carers and healthcare professionals highlighted aphasia twice in their top 10 research priorities for life after stroke. A better understanding of recovery and rehabilitation of aphasia would allow therapists to tailor treatments to specific individuals (and families) resulting in better therapy and recovery. RESEARCH ACTIVITIES: Many researchers have investigated how best to support the recovery and rehabilitation of people with aphasia after stroke. Studies tend to involve small numbers of people with aphasia limiting how confidence we can be in the findings of these studies. We are a collaboration of many aphasia researchers. We plan to gather information collected during previous research projects into one large database. At present we know there is data from 52 old studies (involving 3181 people with aphasia) that we will bring together and analyse. We will also work to identify more research projects that might also be able to contribute to our database. Where possible we will combine these data or use it to make comparisons to provider answer new research questions about aphasia. This is a highly efficient, cost effective method of exploring our research questions. OUTCOMES: We will produce information on: 1) The usual patterns of recovery from aphasia (both with and without therapy) 2) The characteristics shared by people who made a good (or not so good) recovery from aphasia 3) The common elements to therapy that facilitated recovery (e.g. timing after stroke, intensity, frequency, duration, repetition etc) 4) Whether people with particular stroke or aphasia characteristics do better with specific therapies. ETHICAL ISSUES: All data contributed will be anonymised. Appropriate approvals will have been obtained prior to data sharing. Extensions to historic ethical approvals may be needed. The pooled data archive will be held securely. Findings will be presented in summary form, ensuring continued anonymisation. TEAM: We are a collaborative group of international aphasia researchers and part of the EU funded Collaboration of Aphasia Trialists (CATs see www.aphasiatrials.org for more details). Our proposal is essential to progress the field of aphasia rehabilitation. Our EU network funding does NOT support research activities. We have been funded by NIHR Health Services and Delivery Research to conduct this research.

Project Status: Ongoing

URL for project: http://www.nets.nihr.ac.uk/projects/hsdr/140422

Anticipated Publish Date: 2021

English language abstract: An English language summary is available

Publication Type: Not Assigned

Country: England, United Kingdom

Organisation Name: NIHR Health Services and Delivery Research programme

Contact Address: NIHR Journals Library, National Institute for Health and Care Research, Evaluation, Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre, Alpha House, University of Southampton Science Park, Southampton SO16 7NS, UK

Contact Name: journals.library@nihr.ac.uk

Contact Email: journals.library@nihr.ac.uk

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