The relationship between communicative participation and postlaryngectomy speech outcomes

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to examine relationships between communicative participation and postlaryngectomy speech outcomes, including listener-rated speech intelligibility and acceptability, and patient-rated speech acceptability and voice handicap. METHODS: Thirty-six laryngectomized individuals completed the Communicative Participation Item Bank (CPIB) short form and the Voice Handicap Index-10 (VHI-10). They provided recordings from the Sentence Intelligibility Test (SIT) and a reading passage, and rated their own speech acceptability. Forty-eight inexperienced listeners transcribed the SIT sentences to derive intelligibility scores. Eighteen additional listeners judged the speech acceptability using the rating scales. RESULTS: Listeners judged tracheoesophageal speakers as significantly more intelligible and acceptable than electrolaryngeal speakers (p < .05). Speech acceptability was significantly more acceptable to speakers than listeners (p < .05). Weak, nonsignificant relationships were found between communicative participation and listener-rated outcomes. Stronger, significant relationships were found between communicative participation and self-rated speech acceptability and voice handicap (p < .05). CONCLUSION: Patient-reported communication outcomes are complementary to listener-rated outcomes.