Abstract
To analyse the prevalence of vocal tract discomfort in patients with voice disorders. The analytical cross-sectional study was conducted at Riphah International University, Lahore, Pakistan, from September 2020 to January 2021, and comprised voice disorder patients of either gender aged 18-65 years enrolled from Mayo Hospital, Sheikh Zayed Hospital and Jinnah Hospital, Lahore. The Vocal Tract Discomfort Scale was used for data-collection. Data was analysed using SPSS 21. Of the 137 patients, 68(49.6%) were males and 69(50.4%) were females. The overall mean age was 36.36±12.47 years. The most affected age group was 18-33 years 70(51.1%) while those aged 50-65 years were the least affected 28(20.4%). The most common VTD symptom was dryness with mean frequency 3.48±1.97 and mean severity 3.36±1.99, followed by irritation 2.88±2.08 and 2.88±2.12, and lump in the throat 2.42±2.27 and 2.31±2.23, respectively. Dryness, irritation and a lump in the throat were the most common symptoms of vocal tract discomfort.
Highlights
Voice is sound, resonance and articulation, and is the most fundamental characteristic in human speech, being a tool necessary for communication in daily life
The whole vocal tract is involved in voice production and its quality, with amplitudes of sound pressure during flow, and at the inner airway surfaces showing the biggest output of sound generation taking place at 1-3 kHz 2
The human voice has some distinct features, like tone and phonetic quality, which relate to the hearing of the listener, and model which is related to the speaker
Summary
Of the 137 patients, 68(49.6%) were males and 69(50.4%) were females. The overall mean age was 36.36±12.47 years. The most common VTD symptom was dryness with mean frequency 3.48±1.97 and mean severity 3.36±1.99, followed by irritation 2.88±2.08 and 2.88±2.12, and lump in the throat 2.42±2.27 and 2.31±2.23, respectively. The highest mean symptom scores was for organic lesion, followed by neurological disorders, functional lesions and psychogenic disorders (Table 3). The most prevalent disorder noted in the current study was organic lesions (67.9%), followed by functional disorders (22.6%), while psychogenic and neurological disorders were the least common. The current study found that among the mean scores of VTD symptoms in voice disorders, dryness yielded the highest percentage of (84%), followed by irritability (75%), soreness (74.4%), aching (68.7%), tightness (63.5%), tickling (62.1%), lump in the throat (61.3%) and burning (55%). The current study found the highest mean symptom scores for organic lesion, followed by neurological disorders, functional lesions and psychogenic causes. The findings cannot be generalised because the study was carried out using nonprobability sampling technique
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