Associations between physical activity, stress, and discourse production in people with post-stroke aphasia

BackgroundAphasia is a language disorder most commonly resulting from stroke. Increased physical activity (PA) is often recommended to enhance stroke recovery. The impact of PA on aphasia symptoms has rarely been studied. This study investigated the associations between PA, perceived stress, perceived social support, and discourse performance in adults with chronic aphasia.MethodsEleven adults with chronic aphasia completed four consecutive days of in-home activity tracking using wrist actigraphy, while recording themselves speaking and self-reporting perceived stress three times per day.ResultsObjective measures of daily physical activity were moderately correlated with higher word productivity [rs(29) = .41, p = .02] and fewer discourse disfluencies [rs(29) = -.43, p = .015], but only in participants who self-reported low levels of weekly PA. In participants who self-reported low and high, but not moderate, levels of PA, higher perceived stress was related to fewer disfluencies in discourse [low PA: rs(29) = -.60, p = .001; high PA: rs(29) = -.66, p = .001] and higher word productivity [low PA: rs(29) = .78, p = .001; high PA: rs(29) = .66, p = .001]. Perceived social support was related to lower perceived stress [rs(11) = -.79, p = .02], and lower levels of PA [rs(11) = -.52, p = .1].ConclusionIn people with aphasia, the associations among PA, stress, and discourse vary based on reported levels of activity, with the strongest associations found in those who report low and high levels of PA. Perceived social support plays a role in the relation between stress and PA in people with aphasia.