Volume 19, Issue 4 (December 2021)                   Iranian Rehabilitation Journal 2021, 19(4): 387-398 | Back to browse issues page

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Khatoonabadi A R, Aghajanzadeh M, Maroufizadeh S, Vahabi Z, Safaeian A. Developing a Persian Verbal Fluency Test and Comparing the Results Between Healthy Persian Speakers and Persian Speakers Patients With Alzheimer Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment. Iranian Rehabilitation Journal 2021; 19 (4) :387-398
URL: http://irj.uswr.ac.ir/article-1-1404-en.html
Developing a Persian Verbal Fluency Test and Comparing the Results Between Healthy Persian Speakers and Persian Speakers Patients With Alzheimer Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment
Ahmad Reza Khatoonabadi1 , Mahshid Aghajanzadeh * 1, Saman Maroufizadeh2 , Zahra Vahabi3 , Armin Safaeian4
1- Department of Speech Therapy, School of Rehabilitation, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
2- Department of Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran.
3- Department of Geriatric Medicine, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
4- Arash Women Hospital, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract:   (2509 Views)
Objectives: Phonemic and semantic fluency tasks are used for verbal fluency (VF) evaluation. The present study aimed to select the most appropriate semantic categories and the most frequent phonemes of Persian as items for the VF test. Then, we determine the test results in differentiation between cognitively intact people and those with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer Disease (AD).
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 120 people (60 cognitively intact, 30 with AD, and 30 with MCI) in two phases. In phase one, linguists determine the most frequent phonemes at the beginning of Persian words and the most frequent semantic categories based on a survey. In phase two, the verbal fluency test was administered to cognitively intact people and those with cognitive impairment (patients with AD and MCI). One-way ANOVA and multiple linear regression were used for statistical analysis.
Results: The normal subjects scored significantly higher in all phonemic and semantic fluency tasks than the patients with AD and people with MCI (P<0.05). Regarding the phonemic VF task, the phonemes /sh/, /s/, and then /a/ were better in differentiating the MCI and AD groups from the normal group. Regarding the semantic VF task, the animals’ category was better differentiated the MCI and AD groups from the normal group.
Discussion: Comparing frequent phonemes and semantic categories of Persian across three groups of normal, AD, and MCI showed that some phonemes and semantic categories can be more differentiating in the VF task. However, it is a preliminary validation study, and this topic needs more investigation in the future.
Keywords: Verbal fluency, Semantic, Phonemic, Alzheimer disease, Mild cognitive impairment
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Article type: Original Research Articles | Subject: Speech therapy
Received: 2021/06/28 | Accepted: 2021/09/14 | Published: 2021/12/1
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