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Self-rating questionnaires are necessary to quantify the impairment and the impact of impairment on the quality of life, provided that these questionnaires are delivered in the patient's native language. There are no questionnaires to assess the symptom severity of oropharyngeal dysphagia in Kannada-speaking individuals. The Sydney Swallow Questionnaire (SSQ) is one such explicit tool to assess the symptoms of dysphagia, especially among patients with oropharyngeal dysphagia. The SSQ is a simple and easy-to-understand questionnaire. Therefore, the present study aimed to adapt and validate the SSQ in Kannada. English version of the SSQ was translated to Kannada and was administered to two groups of native Kannada-speaking participants - Group 1 included 53 participants (66.49 + 12.65 years) diagnosed with oropharyngeal dysphagia, and Group 2 included 53 age and gender-matched native Kannada speakers with normal swallowing ability with no history and symptoms of swallowing disorders. Cronbach's alpha was used to assess the test-retest reliability. Internal consistency was assessed using the split-half correlation. The concurrent validity of the Kannada version of SSQ (KSSQ) was measured by determining the correlation between the total scores of KSSQ and the Kannada version of Dysphagia Handicap Index (DHI). The discriminant validity was assessed by comparing the KSSQ scores between the participants of both groups. The results indicated that the KSSQ had excellent test-retest reliability, strong internal consistency, and good concurrent and discriminant validity. Therefore, it was inferred that the KSSQ is a valid and reliable tool for assessing the symptoms of dysphagia, especially among Kannada-speaking patients with oropharyngeal dysphagia.

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BACKGROUND: As the literature review suggests, most professional voice users, such as teachers and singers, are prone to vocal abuse or misuse and frequently experience vocal fatigue. Therefore, validating the Vocal Fatigue Handicap Questionnaire among professional voice users with and without the symptoms of vocal fatigue might provide appropriate external validity of the questionnaire. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study was to validate the Kannada version of the Vocal Fatigue Handicap Questionnaire (VFHQ-K) among a cohort of Kannada-speaking primary and secondary school teachers with and without self-reported vocal fatigue symptoms. STUDY DESIGN: This was a validation study. METHOD: The study consisted of two groups of participants. Group 1 included 40 teachers with self-reported vocal fatigue symptoms, and Group 2 included 57 teachers without self-reported vocal fatigue symptoms. The VFHQ-K was administered to each participant after obtaining informed consent. The questionnaire was again readministered between 1 and 2 weeks to assess the test-retest reliability. All the responses that were obtained were tabulated for analysis. RESULTS: The VFHQ-K demonstrated good test-retest reliability, internal consistency, and acceptable discriminant validity. The cutoff value of VFHQ-K obtained in the present study between the teachers with and without self-reported symptoms of vocal fatigue was much less than the cutoff values reported by the earlier version of VFHQ-K. CONCLUSION: The VFHQ-K can be a helpful tool in the early identification of teachers with vocal fatigue and in improving the vocal health of professional voice users.

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The Eating Assessment Tool (EAT-10) is a 10-item self-administered questionnaire that assesses the severity of dysphagia symptoms, the impact of dysphagia on quality of life and treatment efficacy. EAT-10 has been adapted into several languages, including Malayalam. However, the information on the psychometric properties of EAT-10 MALAYALAM is not known. Therefore, the study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the EAT-10 MALAYALAM. EAT-10 MALAYALAM questionnaire was administered to two groups of native Malayalam-speaking participants. Group 1 consisted of a total of 110 participants (76 males and 34 females) with a mean age of 52.9 ± 13.5 years diagnosed with oropharyngeal dysphagia. Group 2 consisted of 110 age and gender-matched healthy participants with normal swallow function and no history and symptoms of swallowing disorders. The test-retest reliability was assessed using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient between the test and the retest scores; internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach's alpha, and Known groups validity was evaluated by comparing the EAT-10 MALAYALAM scores between the participants of both groups. The results of Spearman's correlation coefficient showed 0.99, indicating that the EAT-10-MALAYALAM has excellent test-retest reliability. The Cronbach's alpha was 0.94, indicating strong internal consistency. Mann-Whitney U test showed significant differences in the scores of EAT-10-MALAYALAM between the participants of both groups. Therefore, it was inferred that EAT-10-MALAYALAM had good known groups validity. The EAT-10-MALAYALAM is a valid and reliable tool for screening Malayalam-speaking dysphagia patients.

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BACKGROUND: It is often considered appropriate to assess vocal fatigue using a self-reported tool or a subjective measure, as vocal fatigue is primarily described through self-reported symptoms. The vocal fatigue handicap questionnaire (VFHQ) is a self-rated questionnaire that addresses the concern of vocal fatigue in persons with voice disorders. Adapting and validating this questionnaire into the Kannada language can be helpful in assessing the physical, emotional, and functional effects of vocal fatigue among Kannada-speaking individuals. OBJECTIVE: Adaptation and Validation of the VFHQ into the Kannada language. STUDY DESIGN: A validation study. METHOD: Initially, the VFHQ was translated into Kannada. The translated questionnaire was given to two SLPs and two Linguists for content validation and to assess the cultural and linguistic equivalency. 65 participants (34 males and 31 females) were diagnosed with voice disorders, and 65 participants who were age and gender-matched and had healthy voices were administered the Kannada version of VFHQ (VFHQ-K). RESULTS: The results showed that the VFHQ-K had good test-retest reliability, internal consistency, and known groups' discriminative validity. The cut-off point of the VFHQ-K was equal to 26.50, indicating that the VFHQ-K had acceptable discrimination between the patients with and without dysphonia. CONCLUSION: VFHQ-K is a valid, reliable, and sensitive questionnaire to assess the emotional, physical, and functional effects of vocal fatigue in the Kannada-speaking population.

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BACKGROUND: The Voice Symptom Scale (VoiSS) is a self-assessment tool that assesses vocal symptoms and measures the effect of dysphonia. Adapting VoiSS into Kannada can be beneficial in evaluating dysphonia-related symptoms, especially in the Kannada-speaking population. OBJECTIVES: To adapt the VoiSS into Kannada and to assess the reliability, validity, and cut-off values of the VoiSS Kannada version (VoiSS-K). STUDY DESIGN: The study used a prospective nonrandomized standard group comparison. METHODS: Initially, the VoiSS was translated into Kannada. The VoiSS-K was administered to 76 participants (34 females and 42 males) with a mean age of 46.4 ± 14.5 years having voice disorders. The VoiSS-K was also administered to 76 respondents having clinically normal voice who were age and gender-matched to the participants with voice disorders. RESULTS: Cronbach's alpha was utilized to evaluate the internal consistency, and the intraclass correlation coefficient to evaluate the test-retest reliability. The findings indicated that the VoiSS-K had excellent test-retest reliability and internal consistency. The study group participants had significantly higher VoiSS-K scores than the control group participants. Thus, the outcomes indicated that the VoiSS-K had good discriminative validity. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was conducted, and the cut-off score of VoiSS-K was 40.50. CONCLUSION: As the VoiSS-K is a rigorous, robust, and detailed self-assessment questionnaire, it can be used as a clinically sensitive tool to evaluate voice symptoms in Kannada-speaking individuals.

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PURPOSE: As there are no questionnaires to assess the experience and proficiency of bilingual/multilingual Kannada speakers, this study aimed to adapt and validate the Language Experience and Proficiency Questionnaire (LEAP-Q) into the Kannada language cross-culturally. METHOD: A nonrandomized, prospective cross-sectional design with purposive sampling was used in the study. The cross-cultural adaptation was performed using a standard guideline for developing the questionnaire. The Kannada version of the LEAP-Q (KLEAP-Q) was administered to three groups of participants. Group 1 included 200 bilingual participants (first language [L1]-Kannada, second language [L2]-English), Group 2 included 25 participants with good proficiency in Kannada, and Group 3 consisted of 25 participants with Telugu as L1, English as L2, and Kannada as third language. Responses from the participants were further tabulated and subjected to various statistical analyses to assess the psychometric properties of the questionnaire. RESULTS: Results showed a high test-retest reliability for the KLEAP-Q. The factor analysis results yielded eight factors with eigenvalues of more than 1.8 and had a Cronbach's alpha ranging from .61 to .95, signifying a good internal consistency of the KLEAP-Q. Mann-Whitney U test revealed significant differences between the speakers with good proficiency and speakers with low proficiency in Kannada, indicating a good known groups discriminant validity. CONCLUSION: As the KLEAP-Q has good reliability and validity, it can be used as a supplementary tool with other objective measures to document the experience and proficiency of Kannada-speaking bilingual individuals. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.23631519.

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INTRODUCTION: Literature review suggests that the analysis of acoustic, cepstral, and spectral parameters of voice offers excellent discrimination between the normal and pathological voices and strongly correlates with the perception of voice quality. Although the correlation between the subjective and objective voice measures can facilitate the clinician to distinguish pathological voices from normal voices, only a handful of investigations have examined the relationship between these measures in aging voices. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the differences in the subjective and objective parameters (acoustic, spectral, and cepstral parameters) of the voice in elderly male speakers with and without symptoms of dysphonia, and to document the correlation between the subjective and objective parameters in the voice of elderly male speakers. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective standard group comparison study. METHODS: Phonation and speech samples were collected from 30 elderly male participants having no vocal symptoms related to dysphonia and 30 elderly male participants with the self-reported presence of vocal symptoms related to dysphonia. The subjective, acoustic, spectral, and cepstral parameters were analyzed from all the voice samples. RESULTS: Results revealed significant differences in subjective, acoustic, cepstral, and spectral parameters of voice between the voice samples of the elderly individuals with and without dysphonic symptoms. Perceptual parameters showed a weak and moderate correlation with acoustic parameters and a strong correlation with spectral and cepstral parameters of voice. CONCLUSION: Further studies on the correlation between the subjective and objective parameters of voice in elderly male speakers with various types of laryngeal pathologies would throw light on distinguishing the voice of normal aging from the impact of any associated laryngeal pathology to make diagnostic distinctions.

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