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Background <p>Impaired speech due to dysarthria significantly impacts quality of life. Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) offer critical insight into the lived experience of communication disability and are central to regulatory frameworks for patient-focused drug development.</p> Objectives <p>To develop and validate the Dysarthria Impact Scale (DIS), a brief PRO designed to assess the impact of motor speech disorders on quality of life across neurological conditions.</p> Methods <p>A multi-site, cross-sectional study was conducted with 244 participants, including individuals with Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, hereditary ataxias, and head and neck cancer, and healthy controls. The 22-item DIS was developed using expert input and patient feedback and evaluated alongside reference tools (Voice Handicap Index and SF-36). Item reduction procedures yielded two shorter versions (DIS-17 and DIS-6). Validity, reliability, and sensitivity/specificity analyses were performed, and minimal clinically important differences (MCIDs) were estimated using distribution-based methods.</p> Results <p>All DIS versions showed strong convergent validity with the VHI (<i>r</i> = −0.85) and SF-36 (<i>r</i> = 0.72) and were correlated with blinded perceptual speech ratings. DIS-17 and DIS-6 achieved comparable sensitivity (0.93 and 0.88) and specificity (0.84 and 0.86, respectively). Test–retest reliability was high (<i>r</i> = 0.98), with estimated MCIDs and within-subject variability provided. Group differences were observed, with lower DIS scores in ataxia and Parkinson’s disease compared to Huntington’s disease.</p> Conclusions <p>The DIS is a valid, reliable, and practical PRO for quantifying the impact of dysarthria on quality of life. Longitudinal responsiveness remains to be established.</p>

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Development and validation of the dysarthria impact scale: a patient-reported outcome for motor speech disorders

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年3月10日

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  • Adam P. Vogel,
  • Lisa Graf,
  • Merit Weiß,
  • Cheuk S. J. Chan,
  • Graham Hepworth,
  • Matthis Synofzik

摘要

Background

Impaired speech due to dysarthria significantly impacts quality of life. Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) offer critical insight into the lived experience of communication disability and are central to regulatory frameworks for patient-focused drug development.

Objectives

To develop and validate the Dysarthria Impact Scale (DIS), a brief PRO designed to assess the impact of motor speech disorders on quality of life across neurological conditions.

Methods

A multi-site, cross-sectional study was conducted with 244 participants, including individuals with Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, hereditary ataxias, and head and neck cancer, and healthy controls. The 22-item DIS was developed using expert input and patient feedback and evaluated alongside reference tools (Voice Handicap Index and SF-36). Item reduction procedures yielded two shorter versions (DIS-17 and DIS-6). Validity, reliability, and sensitivity/specificity analyses were performed, and minimal clinically important differences (MCIDs) were estimated using distribution-based methods.

Results

All DIS versions showed strong convergent validity with the VHI (r = −0.85) and SF-36 (r = 0.72) and were correlated with blinded perceptual speech ratings. DIS-17 and DIS-6 achieved comparable sensitivity (0.93 and 0.88) and specificity (0.84 and 0.86, respectively). Test–retest reliability was high (r = 0.98), with estimated MCIDs and within-subject variability provided. Group differences were observed, with lower DIS scores in ataxia and Parkinson’s disease compared to Huntington’s disease.

Conclusions

The DIS is a valid, reliable, and practical PRO for quantifying the impact of dysarthria on quality of life. Longitudinal responsiveness remains to be established.