Stroke had imposed significant burdens on health and quality of life in terms of healthcare costs and lost productivity. Aphasia had added to the cost of stroke-related care. Many stroke survivors with aphasia had received therapy in inpatient rehabilitation facilities. However, aphasia recovery had been variable, and there had been limited evidence on the benefits of inpatient rehabilitation on outcomes.

The objective of the parent R01 had been to describe the trajectories of linguistic, cognitive-communicative, and health-related quality of life outcomes following stroke in persons with aphasia during inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation to 18 months following stroke. A sample of 300 consecutively admitted stroke patients with aphasia, recruited at three Midwestern rehabilitation hospitals, had completed measures of linguistic and cognitive-communicative performance, and the Quality of Life in Neurological Disorders Measurement System instruments during rehabilitation and at 6, 12, and 18 months post-stroke. The study had modeled outcomes as individual and group trajectories, allowing for the development of individual predictions that could inform clinical planning and decision-making for new patients.

The COVID-19 pandemic had resulted in drastic changes in therapy access and utilization since the study had been launched. As a result, patients with aphasia might not have received any inpatient or outpatient speech and language therapy, their lengths of stay or therapy schedules might have been shortened, or therapies might have been offered only through telerehabilitation.