Validation and assessment of voice-related quality of life in Indian patients undergoing total laryngectomy and primary tracheoesophageal puncture.
BACKGROUND
Voice-related quality of life (V-RQOL) has never been studied in Indian patients. This study was planned to validate and assess V-RQOL in patients using tracheoesophageal puncture (TEP).


METHODS
A cross-sectional study was undertaken to validate V-RQOL questionnaire by testing reliability, validity, and responsiveness. V-RQOL was assessed in patients undergoing total laryngectomy with primary TEP.


RESULTS
One hundred thirty-two patients filled 188 questionnaires. Analysis was carried out on 122 patients. Reliability and validity of questionnaire were tested by Cronbach's alpha (.84-.91) and item-scale correlation (.67-.86). Median V-RQOL-Total score was 76.2 indicating excellent V-RQOL. Higher scores were observed in patients less than 50 years (82.5 vs 72.5, p = .08). There was no effect of time interval between laryngectomy and assessment of questionnaire on the V-RQOL scores.


CONCLUSIONS
V-RQOL questionnaire can be used reliably to assess V-RQOL, which is found to be excellent in Indian patients undergoing TEP.
Deshpande
Mandar S
MS
Department of Surgical Oncology, Head and Neck Services, Tata Memorial Hospital, Parel, Mumbai 400012, India. dr.mdeshpande@gmail.com
Kakade
Anagha C
AC
Chaukar
Devendra A
DA
Gore
Vinod T
VT
Pai
Prathamesh S
PS
Chaturvedi
Pankaj
P
D'Cruz
Anil K
AK
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D007822:Laryngeal Neoplasms / Q000534:rehabilitation / Q000601:surgery*; D007825:Laryngectomy / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D007831:Larynx, Artificial; D008875:Middle Aged; D011677:Punctures; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013072:Speech, Esophageal; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014833:Voice Quality