Voice disorders are prevalent in the general population and can significantly affect social participation, occupational performance, and quality of life. Early screening of voice disorders is an important clinical task that requires a multidimensional...
Voice disorders are prevalent in the general population and can significantly affect social participation, occupational performance, and quality of life. Early screening of voice disorders is an important clinical task that requires a multidimensional approach, including auditory-perceptual, acoustic, and self-report assessments. However, self-report instruments commonly used in Korea often contain numerous items and primarily assess overall quality of life, limiting their usefulness as screening tools. The Glottal Function Index (GFI) is a brief four-item self-report measure developed to assess symptoms of glottal dysfunction, and studies in multiple languages have demonstrated its effectiveness in distinguishing the presence and severity of voice disorders. However, to date, no Korean version of the GFI has been developed or validated.
Therefore, this study aimed to develop the Korean version of the Glottal Function Index (K-GFI) and to evaluate its reliability, validity, and screening accuracy for voice disorders in both vocally healthy adults and patients with voice disorders who speak Korean.
A total of 100 adults participated in the study, including 50 vocally healthy controls and 50 adults diagnosed with voice disorders by otolaryngologists. The K-GFI items were translated into Korean and refined through expert evaluation of content validity.
Participants completed the Korean versions of the Glottal Function Index (K-GFI) and the Korean Voice Handicap Index-10 (K-VHI-10), as well as a Visual Analog Scale (VAS). Auditory-perceptual evaluation was performed using the GRBAS scale, and acoustic measurements—including maximum phonation time (MPT), fundamental frequency (F0), speaking fundamental frequency (SFF), jitter (%), shimmer (%), noise-to-harmonics ratio (NHR), cepstral peak prominence (CPP), low/high spectral ratio (L/H ratio), and Cepstral Spectral Index of Dysphonia (CSID)—were obtained. Statistical analyses comprised independent t-tests, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, and Pearson correlation analysis.
The results indicated that the voice-disordered group exhibited significantly higher K-GFI total and item scores on the K-GFI compared with the healthy control group. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis demonstrated excellent discriminative accuracy, with an area under the curve (AUC) of .996.
The optimal cutoff score was 2.5, yielding a sensitivity of .94 and a specificity of 1.00. Furthermore, K-GFI total scores were significantly positively correlated with subjective voice measures and auditory-perceptual severity. Significant correlations were also observed with several acoustic parameters reflecting voice quality and phonatory instability, whereas pitch-related measures showed limited associations.
Overall, these findings support the clinical utility of the K-GFI as a concise self-report instrument that effectively captures symptoms associated with glottal dysfunction. Given its brevity and high diagnostic accuracy, the K-GFI may serve as an efficient tool for the early screening of voice disorders in clinical practice.