Translation and transcultural adaptation of the VHI-10 questionnaire: the VHI-10lb

Abstract

Subjective assessment tools are essential in voice disorders evaluation. The Voice Handicap Index-30 (VHI-30) and the Voice Handicap Index-10 (VHI-10) are the most studied and used questionnaires to assess the severity of the handicap caused by hoarseness on the quality of life of dysphonic patients and, therefore, guiding physician's therapeutic decision making. The aim of our study is to validate a Lebanese version of the VHI-10. The Lebanese Arabic version of the VHI-10 (VHI-10lb) was obtained after a forward translation towards Lebanese Arabic then a back-translation towards English and a pilot study. It was then submitted to 154 participants with clinical dysphonia and 100 healthy subjects. The questionnaire's intrinsic parameters such as the reliability, the reproducibility, the validity, the sensitivity, and the study of the correlation between each item and the total score were measured for the validation of the questionnaire. The results show a high internal consistency of the VHI-10lb (Cronbach's α 0.915) and an intra-class correlation coefficient of 0.963 in the reliability analysis (p < 0.001). The VHI-10lb is also found to be clinically valid (p < 0.001) and sensitive to the improvement of the quality of life after treatment of dysphonic patients (p < 0.001). The Lebanese version of the VHI-10, the VHI-10lb, can be used to self-assess the severity of the impact of dysphonia on the quality of life of the affected patients. This study allows to add the VHI-10lb to the voice evaluation tools adapted to the Lebanese population.

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