Development and validation of the dysarthria impact scale: a patient-reported outcome for motor speech disorders

Impaired speech due to dysarthria significantly impacts quality of life. Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) offer critical insight into the lived experience of communication disability and are central to regulatory frameworks for patient-focused drug development.

To develop and validate the Dysarthria Impact Scale (DIS), a brief PRO designed to assess the impact of motor speech disorders on quality of life across neurological conditions.

A multi-site, cross-sectional study was conducted with 244 participants, including individuals with Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, hereditary ataxias, and head and neck cancer, and healthy controls. The 22-item DIS was developed using expert input and patient feedback and evaluated alongside reference tools (Voice Handicap Index and SF-36). Item reduction procedures yielded two shorter versions (DIS-17 and DIS-6). Validity, reliability, and sensitivity/specificity analyses were performed, and minimal clinically important differences (MCIDs) were estimated using distribution-based methods.

All DIS versions showed strong convergent validity with the VHI (r = -0.85) and SF-36 (r = 0.72) and were correlated with blinded perceptual speech ratings. DIS-17 and DIS-6 achieved comparable sensitivity (0.93 and 0.88) and specificity (0.84 and 0.86, respectively). Test-retest reliability was high (r = 0.98), with estimated MCIDs and within-subject variability provided. Group differences were observed, with lower DIS scores in ataxia and Parkinson's disease compared to Huntington's disease.

The DIS is a valid, reliable, and practical PRO for quantifying the impact of dysarthria on quality of life. Longitudinal responsiveness remains to be established.