Vocal handicap of dysphonic patients before and after group speech therapy

Abstract

Introduction: Group therapy is seen as educational and potentially effective. Aim: To evaluate the vocal handicap of dysphonic patients before and after group speech therapy and associate the vocal handicap after the therapy with sex, professional use of voice and laryngeal diagnosis. Material and methods: This is an intervention study with 50 dysphonic patients of both sexes, with an average of 45.43 years. The Voice Handicap Index Protocol (VHI) was applied in the first and in the last meeting of the intervention. The therapy was performed in eight weekly meetings, focusing on eclectic approach. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed from the Student t test in order to compare the times, Chi-square to assess the association between independent variables with the VHI Total post-therapy. Results: Most participants were women and did not make professional use of voice, with predominant patients with lesion in the membranous portion of the vocal fold. By comparing the VHI domains in the pre and post-therapy group, there is a decrease in the total scores and the emotional and functional domains of the instrument, but this reduction was not statistically significant. When the association was made between the VHI post-therapy total score and the variables: sex, professional use of voice and laryngeal diagnosis, it was observed that there was significance in all these associations. Conclusion: There was not significant reduction in the domains’ values of VHI post-therapy group. This values’ reduction was influenced by sex, professional use of voice and laryngeal diagnosis of patients.