Screening by nurses for aphasia in stroke - the Ullevaal Aphasia Screening(UAS) test

Purpose: In Norway, the speech therapist is responsible for the assessment of language impairment after stroke, but many hospitals have no speech ther apist. This study therefore developed and evaluated a simple method to be u sed by nurses to detect aphasia in the acute stage of stroke; the Ullevaal Aphasia Screening (UAS) test. Method: The study was carried out among 37 stroke patients admitted to an a cute stroke unit. They were assessed by nurses using the UAS, while the res ults of a comprehensive assessment by a speech therapist acted as the 'gold standard'. Results: The predictive value of a positive test was 0.67 and that of a neg ative test 0.93; only two out of 28 who screened negative on the UAS were d iagnosed with mild aphasia by the speech therapist. The weighted kappa coef ficient of agreement was 0.83. indicating a strong agreement between the nu rses and speech therapists' scoring. The screening took 5-15 minutes to com plete. Conclusion: The Ullevaal Aphasia screening test seems to be a short and val id screening instrument for aphasia in the acute stage of stroke, but furth er studies would be needed to substantiate the efficacy of the UAS test.