How Does Long Term Use of Surgical Face Mask Affect the Voice in Normophonic Subjects?

OBJECTIVES: To assess the effects of the longterm-use of surgical face mask (SFM) on acoustic and auditory-perceptual voice parameters in normophonic subjects without any known risk factor related to voice disorders. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Of 73 normophonic subjects who were previously included in a couple of studies before the COVID-19 outbreak, 25 people (18 female and 7 male) who were free of any known risk factor related to voice disorders during the outbreak were re-evaluated to assess the long-term effect of SFM on voice by using acoustic (mean F0, Jitter-local, Shimmer-local, Cepstral Peak Prominence (CPP), Noise to Harmonic Ratio (NHR), maximum phonation time (MPT)) and auditory-perceptual (Consensus Auditory-Perceptual Evaluation of Voice, CAPE-V) parameters and those data found in SFM period were compared with the previous (preSFM) data. MPT and acoustic data were analyzed by PRAAT software. RESULTS: It was seen that the mean F0 value presented a significant increase, while Jitter-local and Intensity values revealed a significant decrease in females after 2 years pass with SFM use (average 22.52 ± 0.18 months).In males, only a significant decrease in Jitter-local was detected. CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first longitudinal investigation on the effects of SFM use on acoustic and auditory-perceptual measures of voice. The data in this study, revealed that long-term use of SFM would not appear to be negatively affecting the acoustic parameters of the voice in normophonic subjects (particularly females) without any related risk factors such as tobacco use, reflux, and etc.

Acoustic and Auditory-Perceptual Analysis of Voice in the Female Smokers Who Do Not Have Self-Reported Voice Complaint.

OBJECTIVES: Smoking affects the voice quality and the previous studies presented higher Voice Handicap Index (VHI) scores, and abnormal acoustic data in smokers. However, there is no study revealing any voice parameter indicating incipient damage in voice functionality. The studies documented that the adverse effects of smoking on phonatory function were higher in females than males and further the prevalence of smoking among females tends to increase. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of smoking on the acoustic and auditory-perceptual analysis of the speaking voice in female smokers who scored the VHI-10 scale as grade 0 (absent), and thus to look for a criterion for incipient vocal damage of smoking. METHODS: The study group composed of 22 female smokers and 22 female nonsmokers between the ages of 18 and 55 years. The acoustic parameters (mean F0, jitter local [%], jitter local abs, jitter rap, jitter ppq, shimmer local [%], shimmer local [dB], shimmer apq3, shimmer apq5, shimmer apq11, and mean HNR) and the GRBAS scale were analyzed in all subjects. RESULTS: No significant difference observed between the smoker and nonsmokers groups in acoustic voice analysis. It was seen that the smokers presented a small but significant increase in the Strain parameter of the GRBAS scale while there was no significant difference in the Grade, Roughness, Breathiness, and Asthenia parameters between the study groups. CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicate that increase in Strain could be considered as an early data in the smokers without voice complaints. However, our data declared that conventional acoustic perturbation analysis did not reveal incipient Strain in voice.

Determination of the Voice Parameters in Adult Individuals With Rheumatoid Arthritis and the Relation of Voice With Depression and Inflammation.

OBJECTIVES: To assess, through both objective and subjective methods, the complaints of dysphonia among adults with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The secondary purpose of the study is to determine whether complaints of dysphonia are related to depression and disease activity. STUDY DESIGN: This is a prospective cohort study. METHODS: Eighty subjects (38 RA and 42 healthy volunteers aged 18-65 years old) were included in the study. Participants were evaluated using the Voice Handicap Index-10 (VHI-10) to assess voice complaints. Laryngeal findings of participants with RA were performed by videolaryngoscopy. Maximum phonation time (MPT) measurements and acoustic voice analysis (PRAAT software) were performed to evaluate the presence of objective dysphonia. Disease activity of individuals was calculated by using Disease Activity Score-28 (DAS-28) scale. Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was applied to evaluate the symptoms of depression in participants. RESULTS: The prevalence of laryngeal symptoms of participants with RA was %42.1. According to the cut-off score of VHI-10, 15.8% of the participants in the study group had voice complaints. Comparing the MPT and acoustic voice analyses values of the study and control group, the MPT of the RA participants were statistically lower (P< 0.05). Perturbation parameters of male participants in the study and control groups were statistically different. 15.8% of participants in RA group had symptoms of depression. However, there was no statistically significant difference between BDI and acoustic voice parameters. CONCLUSIONS: RA may be associated with voice disorders. Male patients with RA had worse jitter parameters, but the number of participants was low. Dysphonia may not be associated with depression and disease activity in RA patients.