Adherence of Patients With Dysphonia to Voice Therapy: Systematic Review

Adherence expresses the patient's degree of commitment to the therapeutic process. It's necessary for professionals to know how to evaluate it in order to plan more effective conducts. This study aims to perform a systematic review of the adherence of patients with a dysphonia setting to voice therapy programs. This review was carried out on the PubMed, Lilacs, Scopus, and Cochrane Library databases, using a search strategy related to the subject of the study. The selection included studies that assessed the adherence of patients with dysphonia to voice therapy using an instrument created for the study or previously validated. Of 1987 publications, 35 were included, of which 14 were excluded for not fitting the eligibility criteria of this review, leaving a total of 21 papers, which were analyzed in full and went through qualitative analysis. The strategies found for the assessment of adherence were the conclusion of the therapy plan, patient self-report, and the use of the URICA-VOICE scale. Therapy conclusion was the most commonly used of the strategies, which showed low adherence to voice therapy. This result shows that instruments like the URICA-VOICE scale measure in a more detailed manner which stage the patient finds himself at the moment of the evaluation.