Risk Factors And Quality Of Life Of Adult Patients With Chronic Voice Disorders

The aim of the present research is to determine the common causes of chronic voice disorders, to determine the sociodemographic and behavioral risk factors for patients with chronic voice disorders and to study the QOL of them. The ORL Outpatient Clinics, Al-Azhar University hospitals were chosen to carry out this study. A total of 495 patients with chronic voice disorders and a control group of the same number were enrolled in the study. A case- control, hospital based study design was used. The most common causes of chronic voice disorders among these patients were chronic laryngitis (35.6%), vocal fold nodules (22.6%), functional dysphonia (18.6%) and vocal fold polyps (13.5%). The 25-44 years age group, low social class, sale man occupation, urban residence and female gender were the most important significant sociodemographic risk factors for patients with chronic voice disorders (ORs= 4.17, 2.01, 1.71, 1.60 and 1.32, respectively). The +ve reflux symptoms index, voice abuse and smoking were an important significant clinical risk factors (ORs=16.94, 8.33 and 6.01, respectively). Also, patients with chronic voice disorders had a significantly poorer self-reported health related domain scores than the controls on all eight SF-36 domains (P=0.00). Moreover, patients with chronic voice disorders due to different laryngeal diseases had a significantly poorer self-reported health related domain scores than the controls on all eight SF-36 domains except in the miscellaneous diseases group.