Correlation Between Subjective and Objective Parameters of Voice in Elderly Male Speakers

Abstract

Literature review suggests that the analysis of acoustic, cepstral, and spectral parameters of voice offers excellent discrimination between the normal and pathological voices and strongly correlates with the perception of voice quality. Although the correlation between the subjective and objective voice measures can facilitate the clinician to distinguish pathological voices from normal voices, only a handful of investigations have examined the relationship between these measures in aging voices. To investigate the differences in the subjective and objective parameters (acoustic, spectral, and cepstral parameters) of the voice in elderly male speakers with and without symptoms of dysphonia, and to document the correlation between the subjective and objective parameters in the voice of elderly male speakers. Retrospective standard group comparison study. Phonation and speech samples were collected from 30 elderly male participants having no vocal symptoms related to dysphonia and 30 elderly male participants with the self-reported presence of vocal symptoms related to dysphonia. The subjective, acoustic, spectral, and cepstral parameters were analyzed from all the voice samples. Results revealed significant differences in subjective, acoustic, cepstral, and spectral parameters of voice between the voice samples of the elderly individuals with and without dysphonic symptoms. Perceptual parameters showed a weak and moderate correlation with acoustic parameters and a strong correlation with spectral and cepstral parameters of voice. Further studies on the correlation between the subjective and objective parameters of voice in elderly male speakers with various types of laryngeal pathologies would throw light on distinguishing the voice of normal aging from the impact of any associated laryngeal pathology to make diagnostic distinctions.