Development and validation of the Spanish abbreviated version of the Transsexual Voice Questionnaire for Male-to-Female Transsexuals.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to create and validate an abbreviated version of the Spanish Transsexual Voice Questionnaire for Male-to-Female Transsexuals (SvTVQ).

SETTING

The study was conducted by two referral hospitals for voice feminization surgery and by a university department of psychology and speech therapy, all in Spain.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS

We prospectively studied 51 male-to-female transsexuals who underwent voice feminization surgery between January 2017 and December 2018. The SvTVQ was completed before and after surgery, and the 10 items with the greatest variation were selected by clinical consensus of an expert panel to develop the short version of the SvTVQ (SvTVQ-10). The correlation between the total score and the score for each item on the SvTVQ and the SvTVQMtF-10 was studied. The internal consistency of the SvTVQ-10 was analysed.

RESULTS

Good correlation (Pearson coefficient above .90) was found between the two questionnaires. A significant correlation was found between the total SvTVQ-10 score and the score for each item. A significant negative correlation was found between the SvTVQ and fundamental frequency after voice feminization surgery. Cronbach's α was .79.

CONCLUSION

The SvTVQ-10 is a valid short version of the SvTVQ and can be used to quantify voice-related quality of life in MtF transsexuals.