An exploratory investigation of the association between severities of the adverse impact of stuttering and co-occurring disorders

ABSTRACT

Stuttering is a multi-dimensional disorder that affects diverse life aspects of people who stutter. This study aimed to investigate the association between severities of the adverse impact of stuttering and co-occurring disorders. Thirty adults who stutter (mean age, 37.6 ± 14.1 years; 26 males and four females) participated in this study. The Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS-J), Autism-Spectrum Quotient short form (AQ-10-J), and Conners’ Adult ADHD Rating Scales (CAARS) were used to assess symptoms of social anxiety disorders (SAD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), respectively. The index of ratio of disfluencies (RDF) was calculated to assess cluttering. The Japanese version of the Overall Assessment of the Speaker’s Experience of Stuttering for Adults (OASES-A-J) was used to assess the adverse impact of stuttering. A moderate positive correlation was found between the LSAS-J and OASES-A-J scores. Inattention and ADHD symptoms total scores were significantly correlated with the OASES-A-J scores. The adverse impact of stuttering was associated with symptoms of co-occurring disorders, namely, SAD, ADHD, and cluttering. A negative correlation was observed between the RDF and OASES-A-J Section III score. Cluttering symptoms were associated with less communication impact in daily situations. This study sheds light on the importance of comprehensive assessments from professionals with relevant expertise for adults who stutter.

KEYWORDS:

• Stuttering
• Overall Assessment of the Speaker’s Experience of Stuttering (OASES)
• co-occurring disorders
• cluttering

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Editage for English language editing, and Yuko Ohara for conducting the stuttering assessments.

Author contributions

DI and SM conceived and designed the experiments. DI performed the experiments and analyzed the data. DI, NS, and SM contributed to the writing of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, DI, upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI under Grant numbers 19J10340, 20K22202, and 21K17523.