Telediagnostic assessment of intelligibility in dysarthria: A pilot investigation of MVP-online

Background: A most important index of functional impairment in dysarthria is intelligibility. The Munich Intelligibility Profile (MVP) is a computer-based method for the assessment of the intelligibility of dysarthric patients. A multi-user online version of MVP is now available. Aims: To describe the structure of MVP-online and to evaluate important psychometric features of the test. Methods: MVP-online was used in 200 test administrations (48 normal, 152 dysarthric). Intelligibility scores were based on 884 listening sessions (30 listeners). Various measures of listener agreement and of internal consistency were examined. Results: Normal speakers achieved scores between 95% and 100% intelligible, the range for dysarthric patients was 20-100%. Test reliability turned out to be good when scores from 2 to 3 listeners were averaged. The amounts of long-term listener learning and of within-test listener adaptation were low. MVP-online proved to have a high internal consistency. Conclusions: MVP-online is an efficient, reliable and valid method for the assessment of intelligibility in dysarthria. It is useful for clinical standard diagnosis, for large-scale studies of speech motor impairment, and for longitudinal studies, e.g. in treatment research. Learning outcomes: The reader will be able to (1) understand the requirements to be met by clinical methods of intelligibility testing in the assessment of dysarthria, (2) evaluate the design of a new, computer-based rhyme test, (3) estimate the value of a tele-diagnostic approach in diagnosis, and (4) discuss the psychometric properties of intelligibility testing methods. (c) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.