ASSESSMENT OF 2 OBJECTIVE VOICE FUNCTION INDEXES

In the care of patients with voice disorders, physicians, speech patho logists, and other health care professionals routinely make diagnoses, recommend treatment, and evaluate outcomes. Although objective and su bjective measures exist, unfortunately, then is no widely accepted, va lid method for classifying voice disorders and assessing outcome after voice treatment. In the present research, the relationship between tw o previously created multivariate objective voice function indices, th e weighted odds ratio index and the multivariate logistic regression i ndex, and subjective assessment of voice function was evaluated. Twent y-three adult patients presenting to a speech science laboratory for e valuation of voice disorders were studied in this prospective observat ional study together with 12 normal volunteers as controls. Vocal func tion was measured on 14 different parameters with a protocol that incl uded a multichannel input for simultaneous assessment of acoustic and physiological parameters. Each patient was recorded reading the standa rd passage ''The North Wind and the Sun,'' and recordings were then ev aluated by the GRBAS scale. Overall, there was a statistically signifi cant relationship between the weighted odds ratio index and multivaria te logistic regression index and mean GRBAS scores. This research demo nstrates that the voice function values calculated from two different multivariate objective voice function indices are significantly associ ated with subjective voice assessments. These multivariate objective v oice indices may be appropriate for use in clinical trials and outcome s research on treatment effectiveness for voice disorders.