ABSTRACT
To verify the efficiency and to determine the cutoff values that discriminate children/adolescents with and without vocal complaints, as well as the measures of sensibility, specificity and efficiency of the Brazilian Pediatric Voice-Related Quality-of-Life Survey (P-VRQOL). The participants included 230 parents of children/adolescents of both genders, aged between 2 years and 18 years, with and without vocal complaints that responded the validated Brazilian version of P-VRQOL. The three scores (total, physical and social-emotional) were analyzed by the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve (ROC curve). The cutoff values, ROC curve and the measures of specificity, sensibility and efficiency varied as the score investigated - total, physical or social-emotional. The total score demonstrated excellent discrimination (efficiency=0.936; specificity=0.991; and sensibility=0.881); the social-emotional score was a reasonable indicator (efficiency=0.794; specificity=0.604; and sensibility=0.983) and the physical score was an excellent sorter (efficiency=0.918; specificity=0.946; and sensibility=0.890). The cutoff values and area under curve were: total score- cutoff=96.25 and AUC=0.98; physical score- cutoff=91.68 and AUC=0.97; social-emotional score cutoff=96.87 and AUC=0.79. The P-VRQOL is an excellent sorter to discriminate children/adolescents with and without vocal complaints. The perception of parents about the presence of vocal problem allows the judge of lower quality of life in 98% of the cases, especially, in P-VRQOL physical domain.
Keywords:
ROC Curve; Quality of Life; Child; Adolescent; Questionnaires; Parents