A scoping review on psychosocial impacts on adults with dysarthria

Abstract

Introduction: Dysarthria can cause a wide range of psychosocial impacts, but limited researchers have documented the psychosocial impacts in the people who have dysarthria. Objectives: To conduct a scoping review on psychosocial impacts among people with dysarthria Methods: This study was conducted using the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). The following online databases PubMed, EBSCOhost, Scopus and Web of Science were searched to identify the research papers, ‘dysarthria’ and ‘adults’ were used as the two key search terms. Cross-sectional studies and qualitative studies were considered in this review. Two reviewers independently screened the titles and abstracts, based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The AXIS critical appraisal of cross-sectional studies and Quality assessment for the systematic review of qualitative evidence were followed as the methodological quality assessments. Synthesis of the data was reported by presenting a summary of findings about psychosocial impacts of dysarthria. Results: Seven studies from United Kingdom, Italy, France and Brazil were selected for the narrative synthesis. Social isolation, reduced self-confidence and self-perception, reduced listener reactions, changes in social life, negative effects on different social situations and negative effects of the emotions are the key findings of the studies. Conclusions: The results presented details about psychological and social impacts in people with dysarthria and how those negatively affected a person’s quality of life. And the findings indicate that psychosocial impacts are influenced by how people with dysarthria feel about how others perceive them. Further studies are required to thematically identify the psychosocial impacts of people with dysarthria.