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Voice Differences When Wearing and Not Wearing a Surgical Mask.
Fiorella, Maria Luisa; Cavallaro, Giada; Di Nicola, Vincenzo; Quaranta, Nicola.
  • Fiorella ML; Otolaryngology Unit, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Neuroscience and Sensory Organs, University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Bari, Italy.
  • Cavallaro G; Otolaryngology Unit, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Neuroscience and Sensory Organs, University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Bari, Italy. Electronic address: giadacavallaro@live.it.
  • Di Nicola V; Otolaryngology Unit, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Neuroscience and Sensory Organs, University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Bari, Italy.
  • Quaranta N; Otolaryngology Unit, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Neuroscience and Sensory Organs, University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Bari, Italy.
J Voice ; 2021 Mar 09.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1126961
ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE:

The purpose of our study was to investigate the impact of surgical mask on some vocal parameters such as F0, vocal intensity, jitter, shimmer and harmonics-to-noise ratio in order to understand how surgical mask can affect voice and verbal communication in adults.

METHODS:

The study was carried out on a selected group of 60 healthy subjects. All subjects were trained to voice a vocal sample of a sustained /a/, at a conversational voice intensity for the Maximum Phonation Time (MPT), wearing the surgical mask and then without wearing the surgical mask. Voice samples were recorded directly in Praat.

RESULTS:

There were no statistically significant differences in any acoustic parameter between the masked and unmasked condition. There was a non-significant decrease in vocal intensity in 65% of the subjects while wearing a surgical mask.

CONCLUSIONS:

The statistical comparison carried out between all the acoustic voice parameters observed, extracted wearing and not wearing a surgical mask did not reveal any significant statistical difference. Most of the subjects, after wearing the surgical mask, presented a decrease in vocal intensity measured. Our conclusion was that wearing a mask is likely to induce the unconscious need to increase the vocal effort, resulting over time in a greater risk of developing functional dysphonia. The reduction of intensity can affect also social interaction and speech audibility, especially for individuals with hearing loss.
Keywords

Full text: Available Collection: International databases Database: MEDLINE Type of study: Prognostic study Language: English Journal subject: Otolaryngology Year: 2021 Document Type: Article Affiliation country: J.jvoice.2021.01.026

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Full text: Available Collection: International databases Database: MEDLINE Type of study: Prognostic study Language: English Journal subject: Otolaryngology Year: 2021 Document Type: Article Affiliation country: J.jvoice.2021.01.026