Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine the utility of vowel initiation tune (VIT) and vowel termination time (VTT) in discrimination between healthy and unhealthy elderly speakers. Sixty‐three adults age 60–94 years sustained /a, e, i, o, u/ for at least 1 s. From audio recordings of these productions means and standard deviations of VIT and VTT were derived. A MANOVA based on speaker gender (36 females, 27 males) and speaker health status (42 unhealthy, 21 healthy) yielded a significant difference in performance in VIT as a function of health status but for gender on the interaction. A subsequent linear discriminant analysis using mean VIT correctly classified subjects in the unhealthy group with 33.3% accuracy (3 times greater than chance levels) and subjects in the healthy group with 95.2% accuracy. These results support the hypothesis that the degree of coordination between respiration and phonation reflects the health status of the older adult.
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