Validation and Test-Retest Reliability of Acoustic Voice Quality Index Version 02.06 in the Turkish Language

• Published in: Journal of voice Vol. 36; no. 5; pp. 736 - 736.e32
• Main Authors: Yeşilli-Puzella, Gamze, Tadıhan-Özkan, Elçin, Maryn, Youri
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 01-09-2022
• Subjects: Acoustic voice analysis; Acoustic voice quality index; Dysphonia-voice assessment; Turkish language; Acoustic voice analysis; Acoustic voice quality index; Dysphonia-voice assessment; Turkish language
• ISSN: 0892-1997; 1873-4588
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2020.08.021

The aim of the present study was to investigate the validity (both concurrent and diagnostic) and test-retest reliability of Acoustic Voice Quality Index (AVQI) version 2 (AVQI 02.06) in Turkish speaking population.
Two hundred and fifty five native Turkish subjects with normal voices (n = 128) and with voice disorders (n = 127) were asked to sustain the vowel [a:] and read aloud the Turkish phonetically balanced text. To determine the test-retest reliability of AVQI, 20 dysphonic (ie, around 15% of the group), and 20 normophonic (ie, around 15% of the group) were reassessed 15 minutes after the first AVQI determination. A three middle seconds of sustained vowel [a:] and a sentence with 25 syllables was concatenated, and AVQI analysis was conducted. The auditory-perceptual evaluation was performed by five experienced raters with Grade (G) from GRBAS Protocol.
There was a statistically significant correlation between AVQI scores and auditory-perceptual evaluation of overall voice quality (rs = 0.717, P < 0.001). AVQI gave a threshold of 2.98 for the dysphonic voice. The values of intraclass correlation coefficient with two-way mixed-effects model, single-measures type, absolute agreement definition showed an excellent test-retest reliability for AVQI in Turkish language (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.986).
AVQI v.02.06 is a valid and robust tool in differentiating dysphonic and normal voice, and has excellent test-retest reliability in Turkish language.