Effects of Laryngeal Massage on Muscle Tension Dysphonia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Background and Objectives This study was to investigate the voice quality and articulation effects of laryngeal massage on muscle tension dysphonia (MTD).Materials and Method A systematic review of articles published between January 2000 and December 2020 in Cochrane, PubMed, ScienceDirect, SpingerLink, ERIC, and Naver Academic was conducted. From the total of 2094 articles identified, 10 peer-reviewed articles were included in a meta-analysis. Mean effect sizes of the variables related to voice quality (jitter, shimmer, harmonic to noise ratio or noise to harmonic ratio, high-F0, low-I, cepstral peak prominence) and articulation (F1, F2, F1 slope, F2 slope) were calculated by Hedges’g.Results Meta-analysis of the selected articles showed that laryngeal massage had medium to large effects on all variables of voice quality and articulation except F0-high and F1 slope in the MTD patients.Conclusion This study provided comprehensive clinical evidence that it is highly desirable to apply laryngeal massage to MTD patients.