Patients with voice-related disorders are often treated by a multidisciplinary team including assessment by patient-reported outcome measures. The present paper aims at documenting the importance of including general health-related quality of life (HRQoL) measures to clinical investigations.
The participants (N?=?80 larynx cancer, N?=?32 recurrent palsy, N?=?23 dysfunctional, N?=?75 degenerative/inflammation, N?=?19 various) were included consecutively at the laryngology clinic at Haukeland University Hospital. In addition, HRQoL data were included from one national group with laryngectomies (N?=?105), one group with various patients formerly treated for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (N?=?96), and one population-based reference group (N?=?1956).
Obtained were the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Core Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ), the Voice Handicap Index (VHI), and the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) neuroticism scores.
By analysis of variance, we have determined significant dependence of groups analyzing the sum global QoL/health index (F?=?9.47; P?