Pediatric Vocal Symptoms Questionnaire (PVSQ): Four new versions for parental evaluation and self-evaluation

Objectives: To elaborate reduced versions of the Pediatric Vocal Symptoms Questionnaire (PVSQ) protocol for the two forms of application of the instrument: self-evaluation (SE) and parental evaluation (PE).

Methods: The Brazilian validation database of the PVSQ was used (Zip code: 758,309). Data were collected from 716 people, comprising 367 children and adolescents and 349 parents/guardians with and without voice complaint and/or vocal alteration. Three major procedures were adopted: 1. Verification of suitability of the database; 2. Determination of the extraction technique and the number of factors to be extracted, and 3. Decision on the type of factor rotation. For factor analysis, the Kaiser rule and Varimax rotation were used; Spearman's correlation analysis was used to verify the degree of relationship between the PVSQ variables, both of the SE and PE. The Mann-Whitney test was used to analyze the ROC curve of the general score of vocal symptoms of each version. A 5% significance statistical level was adopted.

Results: Factor analysis made it possible to elaborate four new versions of the PVSQ, called: "common core of the PVSQ" (SE and PE), "common core of the PVSQ reduced version" (SE and PE), "PVSQ SE reduced version" and "PVSQ PE reduced version". The most complete version of the PVSQ has 7 domains in the SE and 5 in the PE. The common core of the PVSQ SE reduced version had a better area under the ROC curve (AUC), efficiency and sensitivity, and the PVSQ PE reduced version had better specificity.

Conclusions: Four new reduced PVSQ versions are available, containing 10 to 26 items. Aspects of specificity, efficiency and sensitivity, as well as discriminating capacity should be considered in the choice of the version and is a prerogative of the clinician who applies the instrument. As the questionnaire allows the comparison between the parental evaluation and the self-evaluation, it is recommended to apply the same version for parents and children.