The Adaptation of the Cantonese Version of Comprehensive Aphasia Test (Cant-CAT) for Speakers with Aphasia in Hong Kong: a Pilot Investigation

EasyChair Preprint no. 6433

Abstract

Introduction

The Comprehensive Aphasia Test (CAT) is an extensive standardized and formal battery designed to evaluate linguistic and cognitive impairments as well as psychosocial deficits among people with aphasia (PWA). It has been widely used by clinicians in western countries to estimate the impact of aphasia on PWA’s quality of life and to monitor the treatment recovery and outcome overtime. At present, there are no reports of any formal adaptation of CAT into any Asian languages. This study explored the development and adaptation of a Cantonese version of CAT (i.e., Cant-CAT) for Chinese PWA in Hong Kong. Specifically, modifications of test items involved careful considerations of the unique linguistic properties and psychometric variables of Cantonese as well as appropriate Chinese culture. 

Methods and preliminary results

The adaptation process was divided into two phases. In Phase 1, original test items in each CAT subtest were translated into Chinese and modified with control of the psycholinguistic variables specific to Cantonese. Each item that was inappropriate for the Cantonese-speaking PWA in Hong Kong was replaced.

Phase 2 involved piloting the preliminary version of Cant-CAT (i.e., with new items from Phase 1) among healthy middle-aged native Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong. These control results will be analyzed to determine if further changes of test items are needed; the best alternative for each replacement item will also be selected to be adopted to the final Cant-CAT, which will then be administered in nine (including three mild, three moderate, and three severe) native Cantonese-speaking PWA. The concurrent validity will be established by correlating subtest scores of PWAs’ Cant-CAT and CAB. Moreover, the inter- and intra-rater reliability will be estimated. It is expected that the final deliverables of this investigation will lead to important clinical implications.

Keyphrases: aphasia, assessment and diagnostics, Cantonese, Comprehensive Aphasia Test (CAT)

@Booklet{EasyChair:6433,
  author = {Yee Ting Ng and Anthony Pak Hin Kong},
  title = {The Adaptation of the Cantonese Version of Comprehensive Aphasia Test (Cant-CAT) for Speakers with Aphasia in Hong Kong: a Pilot Investigation},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint no. 6433},

  year = {EasyChair, 2021}}