Dysarthria impact profile: development of a scale to measure psychosocial effects.
BACKGROUND
The psychosocial impact of acquired dysarthria on the speaker is well recognized. To date, speech-and-language therapists have no instrument available to measure this construct. This has implications for outcome measurement and for planning intervention. This paper describes the Dysarthria Impact Profile (DIP), an instrument that has the potential to meet this need in clinical practice.


OBJECTIVE
To describe the development of the DIP, which was devised as part of a larger study to measure psychosocial impact of acquired dysarthria from the speaker's perspective.


METHODS
The current psychometric properties of the DIP are examined. The scale was administered to 31 participants with acquired dysarthria. The internal consistency of the scale items and their intra-rater reliability were investigated. Concurrent validity was assessed for the portion of the scale (Section A) assessing impact of acquired dysarthria on self-perception, self-concept and self-esteem by comparing the results with changes in self-concept as determined by the Head Injury Semantic Differential Scale (HISD II).


RESULTS
The DIP shows good internal consistency and strong intra-rater reliability overall. There was a strong, statistically significant, correlation between results on Section A of the DIP and the results of the HISD II suggesting convergent validity for this portion of the scale. There are some limitations to the scale in its current format and these are highlighted.


CONCLUSIONS
The scale is now ready for further refinement and development. Once validated, it should act as a robust outcome measure for clinicians.
Walshe
Margaret
M
Clinical Speech and Language Studies, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland. walshema@tcd.ie
Peach
Richard K
RK
Miller
Nick
N
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004401:Dysarthria / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012649:Self Concept; D013065:Speech Intelligibility