A cross-sectional analysis of the effects of everyday life situations on stuttering and associated physical features

To explore the effects that everyday situations of varying stress/anxiety have on stammering.

The cross-sectional study was conducted in the first six months of 2018 at Central Park Medical College Lahore, and comprised people with stammer. The subjects were categorised into two groups on the basis of severity of symptoms assessed using the fluency severity rating scale. Group A had subjects with mild to moderate stammer, while Group B had those with moderate to severe stammer. An 8-point Likert scale was employed to evaluate responses towards 33 questions of which 30 were situation-based while 3 focussed on physical fitness, blinking and body jerks. SPSS 23 was used for data analysis.

Of the 56 subjects, there were 26(46.4%) in Group A, and 30(53.5%) in Group B. Higher degree of blinking and body jerks were found in Group B (p<0.05 each).

Subjects with severe stammer had more body jerks and blinking compared to those with mild to moderate condition.