Epidemiology of Stuttering in the Community Across the Entire Life Span

Abstract

A randomized and stratified investigation was conducted into the epidemiology of stuttering in the community across the entire life span. Persons from households in the state of New South Wales, Australia, were asked to participate in a telephone interview. Consenting persons were given a brief introduction to the research, and details were requested concerning the number and age of the persons living in the household at the time of the interview. Interviewees were then given a description of stuttering. Based on this description, they were asked if any person living in their household stuttered (prevalence). If they answered "yes," a number of corroborative questions were asked, and permission was requested to tape over the telephone the speech of the person who stutters. Confirmation of stuttering was based on (a) a positive detection of stuttering from the tape and (b) an affirmative answer to at least one of the corroborative questions supporting the diagnosis. Results showed that the prevalence of stuttering over the whole population was 0.72%, with higher prevalence rates in younger children (1.4-1.44) and lowest rates in adolescence (0.53). Male-to-female ratios ranged from 2.3:1 in younger children to 4:1 in adolescence, with a ratio of 2.3:1 across all ages. The household member being interviewed was also asked whether anyone in the household had ever stuttered. If the answer was "yes," the same corroborative questions were asked. These data, along with the prevalence data, provided an estimate of the incidence or risk of stuttering, which was found to range from 2.1% in adults (21-50 years) to 2.8% in younger children (2-5 years) and 3.4% in older children (6-10 years). Implications of these results are discussed.

Effects of Stuttering on Quality of Life in Adults Who Stutter

“…The ratio was nearly four males to one female. This finding corresponds with epidemiological study of Craig and colleagues (2002) done in New South Wales that mentioned the ratio of males to females between 2/1 and 4/1 (39). In another study conducted by Craig et al (2009) ratio was 3 males to 1 female (14).…”

Stuttering, alcohol consumption and smoking

“…However, a recent longitudinal study looking at development of early language by Reilly et al (2009) showed that 85% of parents gave accurate reports of their children stuttering at 3 years old, and it seems likely that parents of 16-year-olds would have an even more accurate perception of their child's speech. Furthermore, the male to female ratio (4:1) of participants who were reported to stutter within this study is consistent with other research for adolescence and adulthood (Bloodstein, 1995;Craig, Hancock, Tran, Craig, & Peters, 2002). On a related note, it would have been desirable to check whether participants were still stuttering at the later ages sampled in this study, but these data were not collected.…”

Origins of the stuttering stereotype: Stereotype formation through anchoring–adjustment

“…The order of presentation for the two persons was randomized. The target person was described as male because males are much more likely to stutter than females (Craig, Hancock, Tran, Craig, & Peters, 2002). A second group of participants was asked to rate only the personality of a typical adult male, with no mention at all of stuttering.…”