Elsevier

Journal of Fluency Disorders

Volume 36, Issue 3, September 2011, Pages 222-230
Journal of Fluency Disorders

Psychometric evaluation of the Dutch translation of the Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering for adults (OASES-A-D)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfludis.2011.03.002Get rights and content

Abstract

The Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering for adults (OASES-A; Yaruss and Quesal, 2006, Yaruss and Quesal, 2010) is a patient-reported outcome measure that was designed to provide a comprehensive assessment of “the experience of the stuttering disorder from the perspective of individuals who stutter” (Yaruss & Quesal, 2006, p. 90). This paper reports on the translation process and evaluates the psychometric performance of a Dutch version of the OASES-A. Translation of the OASES-A into Dutch followed a standard forward and backward translation process. The Dutch OASES-A (OASES-A-D) was then administered to 138 adults who stutter. A subset of 91 respondents also evaluated their speech on a 10-point Likert scale. For another subset of 45 respondents, a clinician-based stuttering severity rating on a 5-point Likert scale was available. Thirty-two of the respondents also completed the Dutch S-24 scale (Brutten & Vanryckeghem, 2003). The OASES-A-D showed acceptable item properties. No ceiling effects were observed. For 30 out of 100 items, most of which were in Section IV (Quality of Life), floor effects were observed. Cronbach's α coefficients for all sections and subsections surpassed the 0.70 criterion of good internal consistency and reliability. Concurrent validity was moderate to high. Construct validity was confirmed by distinct scores on the OASES-A-D for groups with different levels of stuttering severity as rated by the speakers themselves or by clinicians. These results suggest that the OASES-A-D is a reliable and valid measure that can be used to assess the impact of stuttering on Dutch adults who stutter.

Educational objectives: The reader will be able to: (a) describe the purpose of the Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering for adults (OASES-A) measurement tool; (b) summarize the translation process used in creating the Dutch version of the OASES-A (OASES-A-D); (c) evaluate the psychometric properties of the OASES-A-D; and (d) compare the psychometric properties of the OASES-A-D with those of the original American English OASES-A.

Highlights

► The Dutch OASES-A (OASES-A-D) showed good item properties. ► The internal consistency of the OASES-A-D subsections and sections was good. ► Concurrent validity of the OASES-A-D was moderate to high. ► Construct validity of the OASES-A-D was demonstrated by known-group analysis.

Introduction

Research in recent decades has shown that stuttering is often associated with negative impact on various aspects of a speaker's life (e.g. Craig et al., 2009, Klein and Hood, 2004, Klompas and Ross, 2004, Koedoot et al., 2011). This has led to greater awareness among many researchers and clinicians of the need to adopt broad-based measures that reflect the broader stuttering disorder (i.e., the difficulties a person may experience as a result of producing stuttering behaviors, including negative impact on quality of life and subjective well-being), in decision-making, clinical practice, and research (e.g. Cummins, 2010, Franic and Bothe, 2008, Ingham, 2003, Yaruss, 2010, Yaruss and Quesal, 2006). One measure that was designed for comprehensively assessing the stuttering disorder is the Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering (OASES; Yaruss and Quesal, 2006, Yaruss and Quesal, 2010). This questionnaire evaluates “the experience of the stuttering disorder from the perspective of individuals who stutter” (Yaruss & Quesal, 2006, p. 90). The design of the OASES was based on the World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF; WHO, 2001). There are three versions of the OASES: The OASES-A was designed for adults, ages 18 and above; the OASES-T (Yaruss, Coleman, & Quesal, 2010) was designed for teenagers, ages 13–17; and the OASES-S (Yaruss, Quesal, & Coleman, 2010) was designed for school-age children, ages 7–12.

Empirical data have provided preliminary support for the reliability and validity of the OASES-A, based on samples collected in the United States (Yaruss & Quesal, 2006). However, analyses conducted to date have not thoroughly examined several aspects of the psychometric properties of the instrument, one of which is convergent validity (Franic & Bothe, 2008). Further, data from individuals residing in locations other than the United States have only recently become available (e.g., Bricker-Katz et al., 2009, Chun et al., 2010, Cream et al., 2010, Metten et al., 2007, Mulcahy et al., 2008). The adult version of the OASES has been translated into Spanish (Yaruss & Quesal, 2010) and, at the time of this writing, there are ongoing efforts to translate the various versions of the OASES into approximately 15 other languages worldwide (Yaruss & Quesal, 2009). Key aspects of the translation process involve validation of the translation and evaluation of the psychometric data that result from administration of the translated version to native speakers of the target languages.

Among researchers and clinicians in the Netherlands, a desire exists to have a well-functioning Dutch patient-reported outcome measure in order to be able to assess those aspects of the stuttering disorder that are directly relevant to the lives of people who stutter. To fulfill this need, we translated the English OASES-A into Dutch. In the present study, we describe the translation process and evaluate the psychometric performance of the Dutch version of the OASES-A. We aim to contribute to the evidence base of the performance of the OASES-A in general, and the Dutch translation in particular.

Section snippets

Method

The OASES-A questionnaire was first published in 2006 (Yaruss & Quesal, 2006) based on preliminary research that had been conducted over the prior 10 years (e.g., Yaruss, 2001). Below, we describe the characteristics of the original instrument, the translation process of the Dutch version and the psychometric evaluation.

Stuttering characteristics

Table 2 presents the mean scores on the OASES-A-D and the other stuttering measurement instruments (i.e. the SA scale and CA scale) applied in this study. To facilitate comparison of results from the OASES-A-D with the current version of the OASES-A, as well as results obtained from translations of the OASES-A in other languages, Table 2 also reports the mean scores in accordance with the 5-point scale scoring system introduced in Yaruss and Quesal (2008) and used in all three of the current

Discussion

In this article, we have reported on the translation and psychometric characteristics of the Dutch version of the OASES for adults (OASES-A-D). The OASES-A-D showed acceptable item properties, a good internal consistency and moderate-to-high significant correlations with other existing instruments. The translated questionnaire showed no ceiling effects, and the majority of the items exhibited ranges from the lowest possible score of 1 to the highest possible score of 5. For fifteen out of 100

Acknowledgments

We would especially like to thank all respondents and clinicians who have participated in this study. Furthermore, we would like to thank Lianne Hartog and Nicole van der Weele for their contribution to the collection of the data in this project. We thank Marie-Christine Franken and Elly Stolk for their comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. Portions of this research were supported by a University of Pittsburgh Central Research Development Fund grant to the third author.

Caroline Koedoot is a PhD student at the Institute of Health Policy & Management of the Erasmus University and at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam (The Netherlands). Her work currently focuses on applied quality of life research and on a RCT into the cost-effectiveness of the Demands and Capacities Model based treatment compared with the Lidcombe Program.

References (35)

  • G. Andrews et al.

    Stuttering therapy: The relation between changes in symptom level and attitudes

    Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders

    (1974)
  • D.E. Beaton et al.

    Guidelines for the process of cross-cultural adaptation of self-report measures

    Spine

    (2000)
  • O. Bloodstein et al.

    A handbook on stuttering

    (2008)
  • G. Bricker-Katz et al.

    A life-time of stuttering: How emotional reactions to stuttering impact activities and participation in older people

    Disability and Rehabilitation

    (2009)
  • G.J. Brutten et al.

    Behavior Assessment Battery: A multi-dimensional and evidence-based approach to diagnostic and therapeutic decision making for adults who stutter-S-24 modification of Erickson's scale of communication attitudes revised 2003

    (2003)
  • R. Chun et al.

    The impact of stuttering on the quality of life of children and adolescents

    Pró-Fono Revista de Atualização Científica

    (2010)
  • A. Cream et al.

    Randomized controlled trial of video self-modeling following speech restructuring treatment for stuttering, Journal of Speech

    Language, and Hearing Research

    (2010)
  • Cited by (0)

    Caroline Koedoot is a PhD student at the Institute of Health Policy & Management of the Erasmus University and at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam (The Netherlands). Her work currently focuses on applied quality of life research and on a RCT into the cost-effectiveness of the Demands and Capacities Model based treatment compared with the Lidcombe Program.

    Matthijs Versteegh is a PhD student at the Institute of Health Policy & Management of the Erasmus University in Rotterdam (The Netherlands). His research focuses on the practical and normative issues associated with quality of life measurement in the context of public decision making in health care.

    J. Scott Yaruss, PhD, CCC-SLP, BRS-FD, ASHA Fellow, is an associate professor and director of the Master's Degree programs in Speech-Language Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Yaruss's research examines factors that may contribute to the development of stuttering in young children as well as methods for evaluating stuttering treatment outcomes.

    View full text