Quality of life and voice: study of a Brazilian population using the voice-related quality of life measure.

OBJECTIVE

The goal of the present study was to characterize a large population of Brazilian individuals using the Brazilian Portuguese version of the Voice-Related Quality of Life (V-RQOL) Measure.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

We studied a population of 2,214 Brazilian subjects who completed the V-RQOL questionnaire consisting of 10 questions from two domains: physical functioning and social-emotional functioning. The subjects were divided into two groups according to the presence of vocal complaints: group 1, with vocal complaints (1,304 individuals); group 2, without vocal complaints (910 individuals). Subject age ranged from 14 to 90 years in both groups. All subjects self-rated their voice quality upon a five-point categorical scale ranging from poor to excellent. Moreover, the respondents' professions were classified into four categories according to their level of voice usage.

RESULTS

Results indicate that the worse the self-assessment of the voice, the lower the V-RQOL scores, with higher significance in the group with vocal complaints. The total V-RQOL score was 97 for excellent voices, 92 for very good, 84 for good, 65 for fair, and 45 for poor voices. Main correlations for both groups were: total and physical scores (0.96), total and social-emotional scores (0.82); physical and social-emotional scores (0.69); self-assessment of the voice and total score (0.61); self-assessment of the voice and physical score (0.58), and self-assessment of the voice and social-emotional score (0.52). Two interesting negative correlations were found between age and self-assessment of the voice (-0.271), and age and social-emotional score (-0.184). Group 1, with vocal complaints, presented lower scores than group 2.

CONCLUSIONS

The relationship between self-assessment of voice quality and V-RQOL scores was very clear and statistically significant, especially when considering the group with a known voice disorder.