Correlation of the Chinese velopharyngeal insufficiency-related quality of life instrument and speech in subjects with cleft palate

Karim Ahmed Sakran; Remsh Khaled Al-Rokhami; Min Wu; Nan Chen; Heng Yin; Chunli Guo; Yan Wang; Khaled Alkebsi; Bassam Mutahar Abotaleb; Abdo Ahmed Mohamed; Mohammed Qasem Al-Watary; Bing Shi; Hanyao Huang

doi:10.1002/lio2.705

Correlation of the Chinese velopharyngeal insufficiency-related quality of life instrument and speech in subjects with cleft palate

Laryngoscope Investig Otolaryngol. 2021 Dec 4;7(1):180-189. doi: 10.1002/lio2.705. eCollection 2022 Feb.

Authors

Karim Ahmed Sakran^{1

2}, Remsh Khaled Al-Rokhami³, Min Wu¹, Nan Chen⁴, Heng Yin¹, Chunli Guo¹, Yan Wang¹, Khaled Alkebsi^{1

2}, Bassam Mutahar Abotaleb^{1

2}, Abdo Ahmed Mohamed^{2

5}, Mohammed Qasem Al-Watary¹, Bing Shi¹, Hanyao Huang¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases and National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases and Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, West China Hospital of Stomatology Sichuan University Chengdu China.
² Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Faculty of Dentistry Ibb University Ibb Yemen.
³ Department of Orthodontics, School of Stomatology Lanzhou University Lanzhou China.
⁴ Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, West China School of Public Health and West China Fourth Hospital Sichuan University Chengdu China.
⁵ Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Guanghua School of Stomatology Sun Yat-sen University Guangzhou China.

Abstract

Objective: Assessment of the hypothesized correlation between the Chinese Velopharyngeal Insufficiency (VPI) Effects on Life Outcomes (VELO) instrument and measured speech parameters.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the Oral Clefts Center of West China Hospital of Stomatology between January 2019 and December 2019. Speech parameters including speech intelligibility deficit, VPI severity, VP gap, and need for speech therapy were evaluated by speech-language pathologists. All patients and their parents completed the VELO instrument. The correlation between aforementioned speech parameters and VELO scores was examined utilizing Spearman correlation coefficients. The reliability of VELO test-retest and parent proxy assessment was estimated utilizing intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). A receiver operating characteristic curve was used to calculate the cutoff VELO score.

Results: One hundred and forty patients with their parents were enrolled. The mean age was 12.58 ± 3.72 years. Both parent and youth VELO total and domain scores recorded moderate to strong correlations with all speech parameters (r > -.40, P ˂ .001) except the swallowing domain. Most VELO domain items have shown significant correlations with at least one speech parameter. Moreover, the scales of all speech parameters showed different VELO scores (P ˂ .001). The ICC reported test-retest correlation >.73 in all domains, and parent proxy correlation >.63 in most domains except the emotional and perception domains. The cutoff VELO score was 79.04 in parent version and 85.77 in youth version.

Conclusions: The correlations between VELO scores and measured speech parameters have provided evidence for test-retest and parent proxy reliability and criterion and construct validity of the Chinese version of the VELO instrument. A VELO score ≥79.04 (in parent version) or ≥85.77 (in youth version) mostly reflects proper speech-related quality of life. Hence, this instrument could serve as a simple tool to help clinicians understand the social, emotional, and physical influences of VPI.

Keywords: Chinese VELO; cleft palate; quality of life; validity; velopharyngeal insufficiency.