The quality of life impact of dysphonia

Abstract

Dysphonia can affect social life and employment, but formal studies of its general health impact are lacking. The aims of this study were (i) to compare self-rated general health status as measured by the SF-36 in a large cohort of dysphonic patients with those from normative groups; and (ii) to examine the differential impact of dysphonia on the various health status domains. The 163 dysphonic voice clinic attendees (38 men, 125 women) were drawn from recruits to a prospective trial of speech therapy efficacy. The Short-Form 36 (SF-36) scores were compared with published data on 744 age-matched healthy controls. Patients with dysphonia had significantly poorer self-reported health than the controls on all eight SF-36 subscales (limitation of physical activity P < 0.05; other seven, all P < 0.001, Student's t-test). We thus conclude that dysphonia in patients without obvious laryngeal disease has an adverse impact on all health status subscales as measured by the SF-36. The study provides further evidence for the inclusion quality of life measures in otolaryngology baseline and outcome assessments.