Biomedical subjects

J de Picciotto

Publications and source records attributed to J de Picciotto.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1999

A pilot study of verbal fluency in the Zulu speaking population with preliminary application to traumatic brain injury.

This study investigated the semantic verbal fluency (VF) abilities of non-neurologically impaired (NNI) Zulu speaking subjects in order to obtain normative data for this population. The data were analysed in terms of the total number of words generated in one minute, the number of words generated over four fifteen-second time periods and the strategies employed. Where possible, these results were compared to performance of South African English speaking NNI subjects. The responses of three traumatically brain injured (TBI) Zulu speaking subjects on VF tasks were obtained and compared to the NNI subjects. The NNI subjects performed significantly poorer than the current norms and poorer than the South African English speaking population. The TBI subjects generated fewer words than the NNI subjects. The strategies used by the TBI subjects were similar in type but were less efficiently used than the Zulu speaking NNI subjects. The results of this study are particularly relevant to the clinical role of speech pathologists in the multicultural and multilingual population of South Africa.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1999

Swallowing problems in the normal ageing population.

This study investigated the prevalence of subjectively reported swallowing problems in a group of normal ageing subjects. Twenty-five retirement village residents were included in the sample. A cross-sectional descriptive survey research design was utilised. Data was obtained through the administration of a devised interview schedule. The prevalence of reported swallowing problems in the sample was determined. The nature of the swallowing problems were examined and compared to those reported to occur in the normal ageing population. The utility of the interview schedule was critically evaluated. Results revealed an overall prevalence of 44% of subjects who experience swallowing problems that interfere with their day to day functioning. Of these, 64% experienced swallowing difficulties affecting all phases of the swallow while 36% experienced difficulties affecting the pharyngeal and oesophageal phases. The interview was found to be a useful screening measure in identifying the presence of swallowing problems. The role of the speech pathologist in dysphagia in the normal ageing population is highlighted and justified.

Aged↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Verbal fluency in elderly bilingual speakers: normative data and preliminary application to Alzheimer's disease.

This study investigated verbal fluency abilities in 30 healthy elderly English-Afrikaans bilingual speakers, and 6 bilingual subjects with Alzheimer's disease. Three 1-min semantic verbal fluency tasks (animals) were obtained in the bilingual mode, Afrikaans and English. Results were analysed in terms of total correct, and semantic clusters. There was no significant difference between monolingual and bilingual performance. Some healthy bilingual subjects used code switching as a strategy but with no direct increase in the number of exemplars generated, and there was no relationship between age of acquisition, pattern of use and verbal fluency scores. In comparison, subjects with Alzheimer's disease did not make use of code switching strategies, and there was some relationship between age of acquisition, pattern of use and verbal fluency scores.

Aged↗