Voice-related quality of life in the pediatric population: validation of the Brazilian version of the Pediatric Voice-Related Quality-of Life survey

Abstract

Purpose: To measure the voice-related quality of life in children/adolescents with vocal complaints through the validation of the Brazilian Pediatric Voice-Related Quality-of-Life survey - VR-QOL-P (Qualidade de Vida em Voz Pediátrico - QVV-P), to verify whether the presence of vocal complaints interfere with the quality of life of children/adolescents, and to determine the relationship between the vocal assessment carried out by parents and the VR-QOL-P scores. Methods: The participants included 246 parents of children/adolescents of both sexes, aged between 2 years and 18 years (divided into preschoolers, schoolers and adolescents), with and without vocal complaints. All participants signed the informed consent form. Translation, linguistic and cultural adaptation, assessment of cultural equivalence, implementation of the protocol in its final version, voice assessment by parents, demographic and clinical descriptive statistical analysis of the population, individual analysis of the items, verification of psychometric measures of validation, reliability, reproducibility and responsiveness of the instrument to treatment, were carried out. Results: Low scores, especially in the physical domain, were found in subjects with vocal complaints. Among those, adolescents suffered the greatest impact. The social-emotional domain was not sensitive in preschoolers. There was a correlation among the overall, social-emotional and physical scores, and the vocal assessment performed by parents. The VR-QOL-P was reliable, reproducible and responsive to voice problems. Conclusion: Voice change interferes with the quality of life of children/adolescents, and there is a relationship between the assessment of voice quality and VR-QOL-P scores - the older the individual, the worse the quality of life in aspects related to voice, especially in the physical domain, and the better the vocal quality, as perceived by the parents.