Voice handicap, vocal fatigue, and voice-related quality of life in patients with multiple sclerosis.
Raí Dos Santos Santiago, Jaya Miranda Carvalho de Araújo, Márcia Helena Cassago Nascimento and 9 others
PMID 39907359WHAT IT FOUND
People with multiple sclerosis reported significantly higher voice handicap and vocal fatigue, and lower voice-related quality of life, than matched controls.
The link between these symptoms was stronger in the MS group. Standard questionnaires identified these issues even when patients did not complain of voice problems.
Key findings
01Participants with MS had higher scores for voice handicap and vocal fatigue factors, and lower scores for voice-related quality of life, compared to the control group.
02In the MS group, voice handicap correlated moderately to strongly with all vocal fatigue factors and negatively with all voice-related quality of life scores.
03The MS group's overall means exceeded cutoff scores for voice handicap and vocal fatigue, while the control group did not.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study did not perform an auditory-perceptual evaluation of the voices, so it is unclear if the self-reported problems matched the actual voice quality. The analysis did not account for specific disease factors like time since diagnosis, number of flare-ups, or medication side effects, which might influence voice symptoms. The study design is cross-sectional, so it cannot determine if voice problems cause lower quality of life or if they are a result of the disease progression.
Declared interests
The authors declared no financial support or conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that self-reported voice problems in this study reflect objective voice changes measured by a clinician, as the study did not include auditory-perceptual evaluation.