Construct and Discriminant Validity of the Persian Version of the Consensus Auditory Perceptual Evaluation of Voice...

Five dimensions of voice assessment are considered as visual evaluation, videostroboscopy, acoustic, aerodynamic, patient-based, and auditory-perceptual. Auditory-perceptual voice assessment scales are the standard scales for clinicians to document voice therapy outcomes in dysphonic patients. The primary objective of the present study was to investigate the construct and discriminant validities of the Persian Version of the CAPE-V (ATSHA). A secondary objective was to determine the differences between experienced and inexperienced raters in the auditory-perceptual assessment of voice.

Forty normal and forty individuals with dysphonia were rated by five experienced and five inexperienced raters. Pathological subgroups were vocal fold nodules, vocal fold polyps, unilateral vocal fold paralysis (UVFP), and Reinke's edema. The differences between normal and pathologic groups were observed by independent t tests for all perceptual parameters (P < 0.05). Construct validity was documented for the scale of interest. The Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney comparisons were used to examine discriminant validity.

Findings of these tests showed that scores of all pathological subgroups were significantly different except for the parameter of "strain" in sustained vowels (P < 0.05). Results of the Wilcoxon Matched-Pairs Signed Rank Test indicated that experienced and inexperienced raters were significantly different in auditory-perceptual judgments of voice.

It seems that the Persian Version of the CAPE-V is a consistent predictor of normal and pathological voices. Moreover, we found that experienced listeners have different auditory-perceptual skills in evaluation of voice that make them more precise than inexperienced listeners.