Quebec French Translation, Cultural Adaptation, and Validation of the Singing Voice Handicap Index-10 Questionnaire for Singers with Dysphonia

Oumkaltoum Harati; Sarah Martineau; Alyssia Paquin; Simon Brisebois; Vincent Martel-Sauvageau; Andrée-Anne Leclerc

doi:10.1016/j.jvoice.2024.04.005

Quebec French Translation, Cultural Adaptation, and Validation of the Singing Voice Handicap Index-10 Questionnaire for Singers with Dysphonia

J Voice. 2024 Apr 27:S0892-1997(24)00122-X. doi: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2024.04.005. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Oumkaltoum Harati¹, Sarah Martineau², Alyssia Paquin², Simon Brisebois³, Vincent Martel-Sauvageau⁴, Andrée-Anne Leclerc⁵

Affiliations

¹ Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Canada.
² School of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, University of Montreal, Montréal, Canada.
³ Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery Division, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Canada.
⁴ School of Sciences and Readaptation, Université Laval, Québec, Canada.
⁵ Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery Division, University of Montreal, Montréal, Canada. Electronic address: andree-anne.leclerc.1@umontreal.ca.

PMID: 38677908
DOI: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2024.04.005

Abstract

Objectives/hypothesis: Dysphonia is a common voice disorder that can significantly impact a person's life; it requires a collaborative evaluation by both speech-language pathologists and otolaryngologists that takes the patient's perspective into account. The aim of this study was to translate and culturally adapt the Singing Voice Handicap Index questionnaire (SVHI-10), a reliable patient-reported outcome evaluation tool for dysphonia, for the Quebec French population. The result is the Singing Voice Handicap Index-10-QC (SVHI-10-QC).

Study design: This study was a prospective translation and validation process.

Methods: The translation process complied with international recommendations and followed a standard forward-backward translation procedure and cognitive debriefing with 10 singers. The Quebec French version was administered to two study samples: 30 vocal professionals with no dysphonia and 53 vocal professionals with dysphonia as one of their primary complaints. The SVHI-10-QC was assessed for construct validity, internal consistency, discriminatory capacity, and test-retest reliability.

Results: The SVHI-10-QC is valid, reliable, and ready for use with singer-patients suffering from dysphonia.

Conclusions: The SVHI-10-QC is a reliable and valid tool for assessing the impact of dysphonia on French Quebec singers' quality of life.

Keywords: Dysphonia; Patient-reported outcome measures (PROM); Quebec French; Translation; Validation; Vocal professionals.