Validation of the Brazilian Portuguese CAPE-V Instrument-Br CAPE-V for Auditory-Perceptual Analysis

INTRODUCTION

The Consensus Auditory Perceptual Evaluation of Voice (CAPE-V) scale is a modern, clinical-scientific approach to voice analysis. It has been translated and culturally adapted to Brazilian Portuguese, but it still lacks validation.

OBJECTIVE

To validate the Brazilian Portuguese version of the CAPE-V scale using the previously translated and culturally adapted version.

METHOD

Forty voice samples were selected (30 dysphonic, 10 nondysphonic), and the degree of vocal deviation was evaluated by a committee of three voice specialists. Nine voice specialists judged the 40 voice samples plus 20% repetition (total of 48 samples) using the CAPE-V. To ensure construct validity of the CAPE-V, its analysis was compared to the Grade-Roughness-Breathiness-Asthenia-Strain (GRBAS) scale that was performed 48-72 hours later. Finally, the intra- and inter-rater reliability values were verified and the correlation between the nine judges and the previously defined evaluation was analyzed.

RESULTS

The Brazilian CAPE-V presented significant intra (0.860-0.997) and inter-rater reliability values (0.707-0.964) for the overall degree and strong correlation with GRBAS (above 0.828). Deviant voice quality had greater consensus among raters than normal voices. A strong correlation was observed between the analysis of the nine raters and that of the committee.

CONCLUSION

CAPE-V is an important diagnostic instrument that contributes to the standardization of vocal quality evaluation in several languages, including Brazilian Portuguese. Thus, its usefulness is neither related to a single language nor to a single set of raters.

Relations between Creaky Voice and Vocal Symptoms of Fatigue

BACKGROUND

The use of a creaky voice in speech has become more common. Laryngeal findings relate creaky voice with strong adductive tension in the glottis, and thus it may be expected to be related to an increased risk of vocal fatigue.

METHODS

The present study investigated the relation of creaky voice use and vocal symptoms in 104 Finnish female university students (mean age 24.3 years, SD 6.3 years). They had no known pathology of voice or hearing. The participants were recorded while reading aloud a text of approximately 40 s in duration. They also filled in a questionnaire consisting of the Voice Handicap Index (VHI, translation in Finnish), and half of them also answered questions about the frequency and severity of symptoms of vocal fatigue. The samples were perceptually analysed for the amount of creakiness and strain by a speech therapist and a voice trainer.

RESULTS

The interrater reliability of the listeners was acceptable (Pearson's χ2 = 100.159, p = 0.000 for creak; χ2 = 69.199, p = 0.000 for strain). Neither creakiness nor strain correlated with vocal symptoms. Participants with a low and a high amount of creakiness or strain did not differ from each other in terms of vocal symptoms or VHI scores. Symptoms' total score correlated with VHI total score and total scores of VHI's physical subscale. Creakiness and strain correlated positively with each other (r = 0.40, p = 0.000).

CONCLUSION

No significant relations were found between creakiness or strain and vocal symptoms in this sample of university students.