Item Reduction of the Voice Handicap Index Based on the Original Version and on European Translations

Abstract

Objective: Constructing an internationally applicable short-scale of the Voice Handicap Index (VHI). Methods: Subjects were 1,052 patients with 5 different types of voice disorder groups from Belgium, France, Sweden, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal, and the USA. Different 9- and 12-item subsets were selected from the 30 VHI items using (1) the first factor of an unrotated factor analysis (narrow range subsets) and (2) the first three factors after promax rotation (broad range subsets). Country-specific subsets were selected to test deviations from the international subsets. For all subsets, reliability was investigated using Cronbach’s alphas and correlations with the total VHI. Validity was investigated using regression on voice disorder groups. All analyses were performed for the total and for all country-specific subject samples. Results: Reliability was high for all item subsets. It was lower for the international compared to the country-specific subsets and for the broad range compared to the narrow range subsets. Validity was best for the broad range subsets. Validity was better for the international than for the country-specific subsets. For all statistics the 12-item subsets were not essentially better than the 9-item subsets. Conclusion: The international broad range 9-item subset forms a scale which approximates well the total VHI.

Cross-Cultural Adaption and Translation of the Voice Handicap Index into Norwegian

“…The levels of reliability and internal consistency are in agreement with the original study by Jacobson et al [5] and those reported in most other studies using other language versions of the VHI [5,11,12,15,16,18]. Likewise, we observed high correlations between the 3 subdomains as well as between the subdomains and the total score of VHI both among patients and controls, suggesting that all three of the subscales mainly reflect one entity.…”

“…The abbreviated scales as published by Nawka et al [18] and Rosen et al [19] were calculated. ROC statistics were calculated employing the shortened total indices.…”

“…χ 2 , correlation analyses and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses were employed as indicated. The VHI-30 as well as the abbreviated scales as published by Nawka et al [18] and Rosen et al [19] have been calculated from the same data.…”

“…A shorter version of the VHI questionnaire could facilitate its use in practice. We therefore investigated whether abbreviated scales as published by Nawka et al [18] and Rosen et al [19] could be calculated from the original results yielding test psychometrically sound questionnaires.…”

Influência do sexo, idade, profissão e diagnóstico fonoaudiológico na qualidade de vida em voz

“…It is about functionally simple protocols, easy to apply, which have clear questions, thus becoming clinical tools for the assessment of treatment results. Also, provide more refined understanding of the dimensions of the effects of a voice problem in the patient's life and their psychosocial consequences, through selfawareness about their dysphonia, despite criticism on its preparation 1,4,9,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] .…”