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Updated: Jun 15, 2026

Oral Health Assessment by Lay Personnel for Older Adults
Published on: February 2, 2020
Voice- and health-related quality of life in the elderly
Christoph Plank1, Sophie Schneider, Ulrich Eysholdt
1Department of Phoniatrics and Pedaudiology, University Hospital Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany.
Objective:
Restrictions of verbal communication and high prevalence of voice disorders in the elderly are suspected to influence the quality of life. For assessment, both voice-specific and unspecific methods are already established and fundamental components of clinical diagnostics, but the question of correlation between voice-related and general health-related quality of life is still open in this subpopulation.
Methods:
One hundred and seven socially active persons aged 65+ years were recruited and asked to complete Voice-Related Quality of Life (V-RQOL) and Short Form (SF)-36 questionnaires.
Results:
There was a mild correlation between V-RQOL score and both of the SF-36 subscores (r(s)=0.28 for the physical subscore and r(s)=0.27 for the mental subscore).
Conclusion:
As correlation of voice- and health-related quality of life in elderly persons is only mild, both voice-specific and unspecific assessment methods are required for clinical diagnostics.
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