Stage of readiness of patients with behavioral dysphonia in pre and post-group voice therapy assessments

Abstract

Purpose: To verify the efficacy of group voice therapy in the stage of readiness and identify which items of the URICA-Voice range are more sensitive to post-therapy change in patients with behavioral dysphonia. Methods: An intervention study was conducted on 49 patients with behavioral dysphonia. An eclectic approach to group therapy was implemented over eight sessions, the first and last sessions consisting of assessments. The URICA-Voice range was used to evaluate the stage of readiness at pre- and post-therapy assessments. A descriptive and inferential statistical analysis was implemented for the results. Results: Most participants were female, did not make professional use of voice, and had membranous vocal fold lesions. Most of them were in the Contemplation stage at in both moments, pre- and post-therapy. There was no significant change in the comparison of pre- and post-therapy scores. The majority of patients showed a reduction in the stage of readiness and some advanced to a higher stage. In the comparison of URICA-V range items, seven questions had equal or inferior responses in the post-therapy assessment. Conclusion: There was no statistical difference when comparing the pre- and post-therapy total average score of the URICA-Voice range. There were significant changes in the stage of readiness of patients in pre- and post-group speech therapy assessments.