Turkish Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 2007 , Vol 53 , Num 1

Ege Aphasia Test: Description of the Test and Performance in Normal Subjects

Funda Atamaz 1 ,Arzu Yağız On 2 ,Berrin Durmaz 3
1 Ege Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Fiziksel Tıp ve Rehabilitasyon Anabilim Dalı, İzmir
2 Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Ege University Faculty of Medicine, İzmir, Turkey
3 Ege Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi, Fiziksel Tıp ve Rehabilitasyon Anabilim Dalı, İstanbul

Objective: Because of the fundamental differences between Turkish and Indo-European languages, translated forms of currently available aphasia tests would not be adequate for the Turkish language. This fact promoted us to develop a new aphasia evaluation test named Ege Aphasia Test (EAT). The present study describes the development of the test, its normative data in Turkish population, and its reliability. Also the effects of the demographic data on the various subtests are reported. 
 

Materials and Methods: EAT consisted of nine subtests including spontaneous speech, praxis, understanding what is heard, production of language, repetition, naming, reading and understanding what is seen, writing and picturing, calculations. The test was administered to 133 healthy volunteers. Subjects were classified according to their age, gender and educational levels. Twenty-five were tested twice to collect test-retest reliability data. 
 

Results: Educational level was the demographic variable mostly influenced the performance of the EAT. Detrimental impacts of aging have also been demonstrated, but coexisting effect of educational level could not be ruled out. EAT showed excellent test-retest reliability for the overall score and for the subtests.
 

Conlusion: EAT presented here allows evaluation of several aspects of language with high reliability. The test is influenced by demographic variables, thus adjustments in the test scores based on a particular patient’s characteristics should be made and precise indicators of socio-cultural reality of the country should be considered. Diagnostic validity and acceptability of the test should be determined in further studies on the aphasic patients. 

Keywords : Aphasia, aphasia evaluating test, normative data, Turkish