Validation of the Arabic version of vocal tract discomfort scale

Aim: To explore the internal consistency, criterion validity, and discriminative validity of the Arabic version of the vocal tract discomfort scale (VTDS-Arab); and to establish cut-off scores for the VTDS-Arab. Methodology: An overall of 202 participants (31 patients with voice disorders of organic and functional causes, and 171 healthy subjects, mean age 25.3 +/- 6.7) were recruited in this study. Participants completed the VTDS-Arab scale and the Arabic version of the voice handicap index (VHI-Arab). Results: The VTDS-Arab had a positive internal consistency confirmed by Cronbach's alpha = 0.91. The criterion validity of the VTDS-Arab was confirmed by the strong positive correlation between the total scores of the VTDS-Arab and the VHI-Arab (r = 0.64, p < .001). Patients scored higher than the healthy subjects in all the subscales of the VTDS-Arab (p < .001) which confirmed the discriminative validity of the VTDS-Arab. Age and gender were not found to affect the scores of the VTDS as confirmed by Pearson r test (r = 0.02, p = .80) and insignificant p values of Levene's test (F1, 200 = 0.43, p = .51), respectively, which supports the validity of the VTDS-Arab. The study posited interpretations for the ranges of scores of the VTDS-Arab based, where the cut-off score for the VTDS-Arab total was 26. Conclusion: The VTDS-Arab is a reliable and a clinically valid tool that can be used in the evaluation of voice disorders alongside other subjective and objective tools of evaluation.