Role of Voice Handicap Index in Evaluation of Patients with Moderate to Severe Bilateral Sensorineural Hearing Loss.

Abstract

Our ability to hear and speak enables us to communicate with others, forming an integral part of our emotional and social well-being. Vocal problems in hearing-impaired patients have yet to be assessed in terms of subjective level of disability they cause. Present study aims to assess the different Voice Handicap Index (VHI) scores among patients with moderate to severe sensorineural hearing loss and compare them to those with normal hearing. In this prospective case control study(n = 150), study group A (n = 100) consisted of subjects with bilateral moderate to profound hearing loss on Pure tone audiometry and control group B (n = 50) with normal hearing. Both groups were asked to fill out VHI form after a normal videostroboscopic assessment. Mean VHI score in group A was 57.5 ± 12.48 and 6.0 ± 3.24 in group B, difference being statistically significant. A strong positive correlation was found between severity of hearing loss and VHI total score. The difference between both groups was also statistically significant for each of the three subscales of VHI. We infer that subjects with moderate and higher bilateral sensorineural hearing loss hearing have statistically significant higher VHI scores as compared to those with normal hearing. It was observed that perception of voice handicap increased with the severity of hearing loss. These findings emphasize the need for multilateral assessment and treatment of voice disorders in subjects with hearing loss.