Research Paper: Comparison the Quality of Life Among Adults With and Without Stuttering: An Emphasis on the Severity of Stuttering

Stuttering can negatively impact the quality of life and cause psychosocial problems for individuals who stutter. The Overall Assessment of the Speaker’s Experience of Stuttering for Adults (OASES-A) is a comprehensive psychological test containing four components in which the fourth one focuses on the quality of life. The main purpose of this study is to examine the quality of life in individuals with and without stuttering, as well as the relationship (correlation) between stuttering severity and each component of OASES-A test in people who stutter.
Fifty-six adults with stuttering and 56 adults without stuttering participated in this cross-sectional study, and they were matched on age, sex, educational level, and vocation. The stratified random sampling method was used for the survey. The Stuttering Severity Instrument was used to evaluate the severity of stuttering through the oral reading of a 200-word (448-syllabic) text. Similarly, the quality of life was determined by the overall assessment of the speaker’s experience of stuttering. Afterward, independent t-test, Chi-square test, correlation test, Levene’s test, and Spearman’s correlation coefficient were employed to analyze the relationship between quality of life and the components of the OASES test. The data analysis was performed with SPPS version 16.
Our results showed that the mean quality of life score of people who stutter was higher than that of non-stuttering people, and this difference was statistically significant (P0.68), gender (P>0.9), education level (P>0.65), and vocation (occupation) (P>0.92).
Based on the OASES-A characteristics, people who stutter had a lower level of quality of life. It was also found that the quality of life of people with mild and moderate stages of stuttering was better than the people at severe and very severe stages. In addition, age, gender, education, and vocation were found to affect the quality of life. Therefore, it is important to make positive changes in the psychological aspect of the assessment and treatment processes of adults with stuttering. In addition, attitude should be considered for better interactions in daily communications and to improve the quality of life.