Auditory-perceptual Assessment of Healthy and Disordered Voices Using the Voice Deviation Scale
Francisco Contreras-Ruston1, Marco Guzman2, Adrián Castillo-Allendes3
1Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Department, Universidad de Valparaíso, San Felipe, Chile; Parlab - Perception, Attention and Representation Lab, Department of Cognition, Development and Educational Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Objective:
This study aims to (1) determine the cut-off values of the Global Severity of vocal deviation on the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) from the numerical scale ratings, and (2) identify the cut-off values according to different degrees of vocal deviation used by Voice-Specialized Speech-Language Pathologists (SLP).
Study Design:
Prospective study.
Methods:
The auditory-perceptual assessment was performed by four SLPs using two protocols with different scales: the VAS and the 4-point numerical scale. Among the 211 voices analyzed, 147 corresponded to female participants, and 64 corresponded to males, plus 20% repeated voice samples. Participants were between 19 and 60 years. All of them were asked to count from 1 to 10 and were recorded in a sound-proof booth. For both protocols, the judges scored the overall severity. One SLP was excluded from the analysis due to inconsistency during the perceptual assessment.
Results:
For normal voice and mild deviations, overall severity cut-off score on the VAS was 21. For mild-moderate deviations, the cut-off was 55; and 81 points for moderate and severe deviations. The Area Under the Curve values correspond to 0.725, 0.905 and 0.851, respectively.
Conclusions:
Our results suggest that the VAS is a good instrument to be used during voice assessment performed by Chilean SLPs. However, it evidences possible differences in voice analysis perception with other cut-off scores performed in other countries, which can be compared to future studies.
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