Correlation Between Self-Perceived Hoarseness, Perceptual Voice Evaluation, and Body Mass Index in Dysphonic Patients: A Study of 120 Cases.

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the correlation between self-perceived vocal handicap, perceptual voice evaluation, and body mass index (BMI) in a cohort of patients presenting with hoarseness and to examine the correlation between perceptual voice evaluation and the Voice Handicap Index-10 (VHI-10) score in dysphonic patients with or without obesity.

Study design: Retrospective chart review.

Methods: The medical records of patients presenting with hoarseness to the voice clinic of a tertiary referral center between September 2023 and September 2024 were reviewed. Demographic data included age, gender, BMI, smoking, and clinical diagnosis of dysphonia. The VHI-10 questionnaire was used as a patient self-reported vocal handicap outcome measure and the GRB (grade, roughness, breathiness) rating scale was used for perceptual voice evaluation.

Results: The study included 120 dysphonic patients. The mean age was 53.5±15.1years. The most common diagnosis was Reinke's edema (20%) followed by vocal fold polyp (15.8%). Thirty-nine patients had a BMI <25kg/m² and 81 patients had a BMI ≥25kg/m². The mean VHI-10 score was 16.05±7.54 with no correlation between BMI and the VHI-10 score (r < 0.1). The mean grade of dysphonia was 1.62±0.76. The mean rate of roughness was 1.36±0.66. The mean rate of breathiness was 0.84±0.87 with no correlation between BMI and any of the GRB rating scores (r < 0.1). There was a moderate positive correlation between the VHI-10 score and the overall grade of dysphonia and rate of roughness (r=0.456, P<0.001 and r=0.258, P=0.012).

Conclusion: The results of this investigation indicate no correlation between BMI, VHI-10 score and GRB rating in patients presenting with hoarseness. The results also showed a poor to moderate correlation between the VHI-10 score, the grade of dysphonia and roughness in the study group.