Do We Need a Measure of Vocal Effort? Clinician's Report of Vocal Effort in Voice Patients

Abstract

Purpose Vocal effort has been of increasing interest to voice clinicians and researchers. However, little is known about the prevalence of vocal effort in voice patients presenting to voice clinics. The purpose of this study was to better understand how vocal effort is understood and used in a clinical setting, including the current opinions on this symptom and experiences of voice clinicians regarding vocal effort measurement and management. Method Speech-language pathologists who regularly treat voice patients were queried about their years of voice experience, number of voice patients treated yearly, percentage of voice patients who complain of vocal effort, methods of clinically measuring vocal effort, and treatment strategies that address vocal effort in therapy. Results Survey results revealed that vocal effort is a commonly presented complaint in the voice clinic with over two thirds of clinicians reporting that the majority of their patients complain of vocal effort and approximately 25% of clinicians reporting that vocal effort is the main complaint in their patients. Although most clinicians measure vocal effort in the clinic, very few use a dedicated vocal effort measure. About half of the clinicians reported that they specifically address vocal effort reduction as a therapy goal. Conclusions Despite the high prevalence of observed vocal effort complaints in patients and the focus of vocal effort reduction in therapy, there is no standardized measure of vocal effort widely utilized in the clinic. Future research should address clinically tractable methods to measure vocal effort validly and reliably.