Relationship between Type of Dysphonia and Quality of Life Based on Voice Handicap Index

Dysphonia has a significant impact on patients’ quality of life including psychological, social, physical, occupational, and communication to others. Voice Handicap Index is the most widely used instrument for measuring the quality of life for patient with dysphonia. The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between type of dysphonia and quality of life based on voice handicap index. This study was conducted using cross sectional analysis to 12 normal subjects, 26 structural dysphonia subjects, and 10 neurogenic dysphonia subjects. Every sample had undergone video-stroboscopy examination to assess anatomical abnormalities of the larynx and vocal cords, and then we measure the Voice Handicap Index score. The result of the study showed that VHI scores on physical, functional, emotional and total scores were higher in neurogenic dysphonia compared to structural dysphonia subjects with p-value < 0.001. This indicated that the quality of life for patients with neurogenic dysphonia are worse than patients with structural dysphonia.