Primary objective: To validate the Mississippi Aphasia Screening Test (MAST) which includes nine sub-scales measuring expressive and receptive language abilities.
Research design: Evaluation of inpatients admitted to neurology, neurosurgery or rehabilitation units at two local hospitals and who were within 60 days of onset of a unilateral ischemic or haemorrhagic stroke (left hemisphere (LH; n=38); right hemisphere (RH; n=20)). Additional participants were recruited from the community to comprise a non-patient control sample (NP; n=36).
Methods: Data collection included administration of the MAST and chart review.
Results: The LH group showed more impairment than the RH and NP groups on summary scores. The LH group performed worse than the NP group on all sub-scales. The object recognition and verbal fluency sub-scales did not discriminate the stroke groups.
Conclusion: Analyses suggest good criterion validity for the MAST in differentiating communication impairments among clinical and control samples.