Sex-and Age-Based Etiological Analysis of 2901 Patients With Dysphonia in a Japanese Tertiary Medical Institute

Abstract

Societal aging is a grave concern in Japan, and its impact on voice clinics has not been investigated. This study aimed to clarify recent demographic features of geriatric dysphonia at a tertiary medical institute in Japan. Retrospective study. The medical records of 2901 patients newly referred to the Voice Outpatient Clinic of the University of Tokyo Hospital between 2003 and 2020 were analyzed for age, sex, and etiology. The mean ± standard deviation age of all patients was 53.2 ± 20.7 (median, 58; range, 0-95) years. The aging rate (ratio of patients aged ≥65 years) increased continuously during the study period, and the recent aging rate was the highest in the world (43%). However, its rate of increase has slowed over the past 10 years. The etiologies of dysphonia associated with the largest number of older patients were vocal fold immobility (32%), vocal fold atrophy (23%), and benign vocal fold lesions (11%). The highest aging rate was detected in patients with laryngeal cancer/leukoplakia, vocal tremor, vocal fold atrophy, sulcus vocalis, and vocal fold immobility. Societal aging substantially increased the aging rate of patients with dysphonia in a Japanese voice clinic. The incidence of vocal fold immobility and atrophy is expected to continue to increase, whereas that of benign vocal fold lesions is expected to decrease.