Craig Ashley, Blumgart Elaine, Tran Yvonne
Rehabilitation Studies Unit, Northern Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Sydney, PO Box 6, Ryde, NSW 1680, Australia.
J Fluency Disord. 2009 Jun;34(2):61-71. doi: 10.1016/j.jfludis.2009.05.002. Epub 2009 May 14.
Stuttering is an involuntary fluency disorder that is not uncommon in society. However, the impact of stuttering on a composite measure such as quality of life has rarely been estimated. Quality of life (QOL) assesses the well-being of a person from a multidimensional perspective, and valid and reliable general QOL measures are available that can be used to estimate the impact of stuttering on QOL. This study involved the use of a general measure of QOL called the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 (SF-36) in order to assess the impact of stuttering in 200 adults who stutter (AWS). Comparisons to 200 adults of similar age and sex ratio who do not stutter were made so that the unique contribution of stuttering on QOL could be estimated. Findings indicated that stuttering does negatively impact QOL in the vitality, social functioning, emotional functioning and mental health status domains. Results also tentatively suggest that people who stutter with increased levels of severity may have a higher risk of poor emotional functioning. These findings have implications for treatment such as the necessity to address the emotional and psychological aspects of QOL in AWS and the need for additional clinical resources to be invested in stuttering treatment.
The reader will be able to: (a) summarize the method used in quality of life assessment using the SF-36; (b) describe the impact of stuttering on the quality of life of adults who stutter; (c) compare the impact of stuttering to the quality of life of adults who do not stutter; (d) describe the relationship between frequency of stuttering and quality of life.
口吃是一种不由自主的流畅性障碍，在社会中并不罕见。然而，口吃对诸如生活质量等综合指标的影响却鲜有评估。生活质量（QOL）从多维度视角评估一个人的幸福感，并且有有效且可靠的通用生活质量测量方法可用于估计口吃对生活质量的影响。本研究使用一种名为医学结局研究简表-36（SF-36）的通用生活质量测量方法，以评估口吃对200名成年口吃者（AWS）的影响。将这些口吃者与200名年龄和性别比例相似的非口吃成年人进行比较，以便能够估计口吃对生活质量的独特影响。研究结果表明，口吃在活力、社会功能、情感功能和心理健康状况等领域确实会对生活质量产生负面影响。结果还初步表明，口吃严重程度增加的人可能有更高的情感功能不佳风险。这些发现对治疗具有启示意义，例如有必要解决成年口吃者生活质量的情感和心理方面问题，以及需要在口吃治疗中投入更多临床资源。
读者将能够：（a）总结使用SF-36进行生活质量评估的方法；（b）描述口吃对成年口吃者生活质量的影响；（c）比较口吃对成年口吃者与非口吃者生活质量的影响；（d）描述口吃频率与生活质量之间的关系。
