Aphasia, one of the most common acquired language disorders following stroke, has been reported to occur in approximately 20–40% of individuals with stroke. Due to impaired language function, aphasia negatively affects interpersonal relationships, e...
Aphasia, one of the most common acquired language disorders following stroke, has been reported to occur in approximately 20–40% of individuals with stroke. Due to impaired language function, aphasia negatively affects interpersonal relationships, employment status, and post-treatment social reintegration. Furthermore, deficits in language comprehension and expression contribute not only to communication difficulties but also to social isolation, depression, and reduced quality of life. Depression is recognized as an important factor that negatively affects participation in rehabilitation and functional recovery. However, existing self-report and clinical interview-based depression assessment tools have limitations when applied to individuals with aphasia because of their language impairments. In Korea, studies on depression assessment in individuals with aphasia remain limited, and observer-based depression assessment tools adapted to the Korean linguistic and cultural context are lacking. Therefore, this study aimed to translate and culturally adapt the Stroke Aphasic Depression Questionnaire (SADQ) into Korean and to examine the reliability and validity of the Korean version of the Stroke Aphasic Depression Questionnaire.
The participants were adults diagnosed with post-stroke aphasia. Twenty-three participants were included in the validation of the first translated version, and forty participants were included in the validation of the revised second version. The translation followed internationally recommended procedures, including forward translation, back-translation, and expert review. The reliability and validity of the first translated version (N = 23) were examined, after which several items were revised based on the findings, and additional validation was conducted for the revised second version (N = 40). Concurrent validity was examined using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). In addition, the Korean version of the Stroke Aphasic Depression Questionnaire was administered to caregivers of a subset of participants to exploratorily examine the relationship between caregiver ratings and patients' self-reported depression.
The results were as follows. The first translated version demonstrated high internal consistency (Cronbach's α = .919), acceptable test–retest reliability (r = .799, p 〈 .001), and significant concurrent validity with the CES-D (r = .749, p 〈 .001). However, several items (Items 4, 15, 16, 18, and 21) showed relatively low corrected item–total correlations and were subsequently revised to better reflect Korean linguistic and cultural characteristics. The revised second version demonstrated acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's α = .753), high test–retest reliability (r = .891, p 〈 .001), and significant concurrent validity with the CES-D (r = .617, p 〈 .001). No significant differences were found between caregiver and patient scores on the Korean version of the Stroke Aphasic Depression Questionnaire in either the first (N = 8) or second (N = 10) validation. Correlation analyses revealed that the non-significant correlation observed in the first validation (r = .359, p 〉 .05) increased to a very strong positive correlation in the second validation (r = .933, p 〈 .001). Furthermore, significant positive correlations were found between caregivers' scores on the Korean version of the Stroke Aphasic Depression Questionnaire and patients' CES-D scores in both the first (r = .735, p 〈 .05) and second (r = .786, p 〈 .01) validations, suggesting that caregiver ratings reflected patients' levels of depression to some extent.
This study is meaningful in that it provides a preliminary Korean adaptation of an observer-based depression assessment tool for individuals with aphasia and presents initial evidence supporting its reliability and validity. These findings suggest that the Korean version of the Stroke Aphasic Depression Questionnaire has the potential to serve as an observer-based instrument for assessing depression in individuals with post-stroke aphasia and may contribute to the early identification of depressive symptoms, appropriate psychological intervention, and rehabilitation planning.