Patient-reported outcomes in stuttering treatment: conceptual framework

Abstract

Evaluation of: Yaruss JS, Quesal RW. Overall Assessment of the Speaker’s Experience of Stuttering (OASES): documenting multiple outcomes in stuttering treatment. J. Fluency Disord. 31(2), 90–115 (2006). These authors presented the first complete instrument intended to measure the impact of stuttering in adults who stutter (Overall Assessment of the Speaker’s Experience of Stuttering; [OASES]). OASES is a 100-item self-report metric with four sections: general information, reactions to stuttering, communication in daily situations and quality of life. Its conceptual framework includes historic views of the influence of emotional and cognitive variables on stuttering; the WHO’s International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities and Handicaps (ICIDH); and the WHO’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). However, both this conceptual framework and the psychometric data presented to support the OASES are problematic in ways that clinicians and researchers in areas well-beyond stuttering may find informative as they consider their own applications.