To evaluate a symptom-focused vocal impairment instrument for the evaluation of patients with voice disorders. Design: Prospective, nonrandomized study of patients with voice disorders undergoing treatment with validation of a new symptom index, the Glottal Function Index (GFI). Setting: Voice disorders clinic at an academic tertiary care hospital. Patients: Consecutive patients undergoing therapy for glottal insufficiency, adductor spasmodic dysphonia, nodules, and granuloma (40 patients in each group) and 40 control patients. Interventions: The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to evaluate GFI reproducibility and to compare it with the Voice Handicap Index (VHI). The pairedsamples t test was used to compare pretherapy and posttherapy GFI values. Main Outcome Measures: Correlation of GFI with VHI; comparison of the GFI in normals, and in pretherapy and posttherapy GFI and VHI scores. Results: The mean ± SD normative GFI score was 0.87 ±1.32. The correlation coefficient for GFI between independent pretherapy measurements was 0.56 (PϽ.001). The correlation coefficient between total GFI and total VHI scores was 0.61 (PϽ.001). The mean posttherapy GFI scores improved among all groups as follows:

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