How do individuals cope with voice disorders? Introducing the Voice Disability Coping Questionnaire.

Coping is a key concept in psychological medicine, which refers to the way in which people deal with the stress of illness. Voice disorders may have pervasive effects upon the individual's life beyond the vocal impairment yet, there is little reference in current literature as to how people cope with voice problems. This study explored and validated the Voice Disability Coping Questionnaire (VDCQ), a newly developed disease-specific coping measure, which elicits how patients cope with voice problems. Eighty subjects presenting with muscle tension dysphonia (MTD) and adductor spasmodic dysphonia (ASD) completed a 28-item VDCQ as part of an initial assessment protocol before intervention, within a longitudinal study. Principal component analyses were used to investigate the underlying structure of this questionnaire; analyses of variance were used to determine group differences in coping strategies. The principal component analyses generated four coping subscales: “social support,” “passive coping,” “avoidance,” and “information seeking” measured over 15 items. The subscales revealed logical correlations between them. Avoidance and passive coping were found to be used by the ASD group significantly more than the MTD group. This study provided initial evidence for the validity and reliability of the VDCQ; it differentiated between clinical groups and may facilitate a patient-centered approach, which enhances the understanding of voice disorders.