What Do Speech Pathologists Know About HIV

Abstract

Speech pathologists have reported assessing and treating patients with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) but there has been little research into the nature or frequency of such communication or swallowing disorders. All speech pathologists with adult patients in the State of New South Wales, Australia, were surveyed about their exposure to patients with HIV. Of 148 replies, 24% had seen patients they knew to have HIV. These patients were referred for a range of disorders including dysphagia, dysarthria, aphasia and language impairment, voice, vocational rehabilitation, augmentative communication, saliva management, and AIDS dementia complex.The knowledge that the speech pathologists had about possible communication and swallowing impairments arising from HIV was also surveyed. Clinicians were generally unsure of the disorders that might arise from infection with HIV and the frequency of such disorders. There was a significant difference between the knowledge of respondents who had seen patients they ...