Perceived dysphonia by the clinician's and patient's viewpoint

purpose: to verify the relationship between the clinician's vocal evaluation and vocal self-assessment and voice-related quality of life. methods: participants were 96 individuals: 48 with vocal complaints and voice deviation (vcg), mean age of 51 years, with diagnosis and indication of voice therapy; and 48 with no vocal complaints and healthy voices (nvcg), mean age of 46 years. all participants answered the voice-related quality of life (v-rqol) questionnaire, performed a vocal self-assessment and were submitted to auditory-perceptual analysis of voice. results: mean v-rqol scores were different between groups for all domains. self-assessment results also showed differences between groups, which was not the case in the auditory-perceptual analysis of sustained vowel and connected speech, showing that the patient's perception was worse than the clinician's. there was correlation between the v-rqol domains (socio-emotional and physical: 76.8%; socio-emotional and total: 90.8%; physical and total: 95.8%), as well as between the socio-emotional (-52.9%), physical (-43.1%) and total (-52.2%) domains and the self-assessment. however, no correlation was found between auditory-perceptual analysis and self-assessment measures, except for a weak correlation between vocal self-assessment and auditory-perceptual analysis of the sustained vowel (33.3%). conclusion: the clinician's perception does correspond to the individual's self-perception of his/her vocal quality and the impact of a voice deviation on his/her quality of life, but not directly. the individual's perception about his/her vocal quality and voice-related quality of life complements the clinician's perception regarding the overall degree of the voice deviation.