[Reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the Voice Handicap Index].
OBJECTIVE
We investigated the reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the Voice Handicap Index (VHI), and developed a short VHI form that would be more practical.


METHODS
The original VHI was translated to Turkish by 10 otolaryngologists, then it was translated back to English by a linguist, and the final text was prepared by the evaluation committee composed of three members. The translated version was administered to a group of 220 subjects twice with 7-14 days intervals. Based on the responses, statistical analyses were performed to assess its reliability and validity.


RESULTS
Internal consistency reliability was found to be highly significant (Cronbach's alpha=0.97). Test-retest correlation coefficient was 0.93 for the total score. Factor analysis yielded three factors explaining 64.8% of the total variance. The corrected item-total correlation coefficients ranged from 0.50 to 0.80. The 10 most robust VHI items, namely, E7, E9, P10, F11, F12, E15, F16, P18, P20 and E29, were selected using the corrected item-total correlation coefficients, and a shortened form of the Turkish VHI was developed.


CONCLUSIONS
As some items are thought to be contentious in the Turkish VHI, the short form of the Turkish VHI is more suitable for use in clinics.
Kiliç
Mehmet Akif
MA
Department of Otolaryngology, Medicine Faculty of Kahramanmaraş Sütçü Imam University, Kahramanmaraş, Turkey. makilic@yahoo.com
Okur
Erdoğan
E
Yildirim
Ilhami
I
Oğüt
Fatih
F
Denizoğlu
Ilter
I
Kizilay
Ahmet
A
Oğuz
Haldun
H
Kandoğan
Tolga
T
Doğan
Müzeyyen
M
Akdoğan
Ozgür
O
Bekiroğlu
Nural
N
Oztarakçi
Hüseyin
H
D006801:Humans; D007828:Laryngoscopy; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014421:Turkey; D014831:Voice; D014832:Voice Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D014833:Voice Quality