Validation of the Acoustic Voice Quality Index Version 03.01 in Turkish.

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of this study was to validate the Acoustic Voice Quality Index (AVQI) version 3.01 in the Turkish-speaking population.

Materials and methods: Concatenated voice samples of the sustained vowel [a:] and continuous speech were collected from 127 dysphonic and 128 normophonic participants. The auditory-perceptual evaluation was performed by five experienced raters using the Grade parameter of the Grade, Roughness, Breathiness, Asthenia, Strain scale. Rater reliability, concurrent validity, diagnostic accuracy, and differences between normophonic and dysphonic groups were analyzed for the AVQI version 3.01.

Results: The number of syllables for the standardized reading text with the concatenation of the voiced parts lasting around 3 seconds (mean = 3.84 seconds) was 36. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) values of intra-rater reliability of G scores of five raters were excellent (mean ICC = 0.934), and of inter-rater reliability, they varied between moderate and excellent (mean ICC = 0.786). AVQIv3 demonstrated a high diagnostic accuracy with area under receiver-operating characteristic curve = 0.906 in identifying disrupted versus normal voice quality. With sensitivity of 80% and specificity of 94%, AVQIv3 = 2.345 was the cutoff point that differentiated most accurately between normophonic and dysphonic voices in Turkish.

Conclusion: AVQIv3 is an ecologically valid tool for objective differentiation between dysphonic and normal voices in the Turkish language.