Agreement between patient-reported and clinician-rated speech and swallowing outcomes – Understanding the trend in post-operative oral cavity cancer patients

Aim

To find the agreement between clinician-rated and patient-reported speech and swallowing outcomes in post-operative oral cavity cancer patients.

Methods

In this prospective observational study, a total of 53 post-operative oral cavity cancer patients were recruited. The Speech Handicap Index – Kannada (SHI-K) and the Dysphagia Handicap Index − Kannada (DHI-K) were used as the patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs), and the Mann Assessment of Swallowing Ability-Cancer (MASA-C) and Ali Yavar Jung National Institute of Speech & Hearing Disabilities (DIVYANGJAN) AYJNISHD(D)’s speech intelligibility rating scale were used as the clinician-rated scales to evaluate speech and swallowing status.

Results

Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was poor, with a value of 0.480 between clinician-rated speech AYJNISHD(D)’s scale and patient-reported SHI-K scale. ICC was poor, with a value of 0.471 between clinician-rated swallowing MASA-C and patient-reported swallowing DHI-K.

Conclusion

In our study, there was no agreement between patient-reported and clinician-rated speech and swallowing outcomes in post-operative oral cavity cancer patients. Incorporating PROMs into routine clinical practice is advisable, and clinicians need to balance PROMs with clinical and instrumental speech and swallowing assessments to ensure comprehensive care.