Normative values for the Voice Handicap Index-10.

Area of Science:

• Audiology and Speech Sciences
• Otolaryngology
• Health Sciences

Background:

• The Voice Handicap Index (VHI) is widely used to assess the impact of voice disorders on daily life.
• Normative data for the shorter Voice Handicap Index-10 (VHI-10) subset has been lacking in scientific literature.
• Establishing these normative values is crucial for accurate clinical interpretation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the normative values for the Voice Handicap Index-10 (VHI-10) questionnaire.
• To provide a benchmark for identifying abnormal VHI-10 scores.

Main Methods:

• 190 subjects without voice complaints completed VHI questionnaires.
• Data from the original VHI and VHI-10 subsets were analyzed for mean, standard error of the mean (SEM), and standard deviation (SD).
• Outliers were identified as scores exceeding three standard deviations above the mean.

Main Results:

• Analysis of 156 VHI questionnaires yielded normative values with a mean of 6.86 (SEM=0.79, SD=9.88).
• Analysis of 158 VHI-10 questionnaires showed normative values with a mean of 2.83 (SEM=0.31, SD=3.93).

Conclusions:

• This research provides essential normative data for the VHI-10.
• A VHI-10 score greater than 11 is proposed as the threshold for an abnormal score.
• These findings will aid clinicians in the objective assessment of voice quality and handicap.