Motivation as a predictor of speech intelligibility after total laryngectomy

Abstract

Motivation is not a strong predictor of speech intelligibility 1 year after laryngectomy.

Multicenter prospective study on the use and outcome of rehabilitation after total laryngectomy in Germany

“…One potential confounder could be the motivation of the patients. However, this is not a likely explanation as we discovered previously that nearly all patients are highly motivated to obtain a new voice and intelligible speech after total laryngectomy . Still, other as yet unknown confounders could have caused this association.…”

“…A detailed analysis of nonparticipation and attrition is published elsewhere . In the following, we define “participants” as being those who participated at any time point and who had a total laryngectomy ( n = 371).…”

“…However, this is not a likely explanation as we discovered previously that nearly all patients are highly motivated to obtain a new voice and intelligible speech after total laryngectomy. 27 Still, other as yet unknown confounders could have caused this association. The only conclusion we can draw is that speech intelligibility differs between rehabilitation users and nonusers.…”

“…Details of the study design have been published in previous papers . In brief, patients were approached before total laryngectomy [t1], before onset of rehabilitation (t2), at the end of rehabilitation (t3), and 1 year (t4), 2 years (t5), and 3 years (t6) after surgery.…”

“…Details of the study design have been published in previous papers. 5,[24][25][26][27] In brief, patients were approached before total laryngectomy [t1], before onset of rehabilitation (t2), at the end of rehabilitation (t3), and 1 year (t4), 2 years (t5), and 3 years (t6) after surgery. If no rehabilitation was used by the patient, t2 was performed at the time of discharge from the hospital and t3 about 3 months later.…”