First report on the reliability and validity of speech handicap index in native English-speaking patients with head and neck cancer.
BACKGROUND
Posttreatment speech problems are seen in nearly half of patients with head and neck cancer. Although there are many voice-specific scales, surprisingly there is no speech-specific questionnaire for English-speaking patients with head and neck cancer. The aim of this study was to validate the Speech Handicap Index (SHI) as the first speech-specific questionnaire in the English language.


METHODS
In all, 55 consecutive patients in follow-up for oral and oropharyngeal cancer completed the SHI and University of Washington Quality of Life Questionnaire (UWQOL V.04). Thirty-two patients completed both questionnaires again 4 weeks later to address test-retest reliability.


RESULTS
Internal consistency, test-retest reliability, construct validity, and group validity of the SHI were found to be highly significant (p < .01) using Cronbach's alpha, Spearman's correlation coefficient (r), and Mann-Whitney U tests.


CONCLUSIONS
The SHI is a precise, highly reliable, and valid speech assessment tool for patients with head and neck cancer. Further dedicated studies using the SHI in patients with head and neck cancer would be useful.
Dwivedi
Raghav C
RC
Head and Neck Unit, Royal Marsden Hospital, London, UK. raghav_dwivedi@rediffmail.com
St Rose
Suzanne
S
Roe
Justin W G
JW
Chisholm
Edward
E
Elmiyeh
Behrad
B
Nutting
Christopher M
CM
Clarke
Peter M
PM
Kerawala
Cyrus J
CJ
Rhys-Evans
Peter H
PH
Harrington
Kevin J
KJ
Kazi
Rehan
R
D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015984:Causality; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015897:Comorbidity; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000534:rehabilitation; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D009959:Oropharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013064:Speech Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires