Summary
Objectives
We constructed age- and gender-specific norms for healthy adults on a large number
of speech and voice measures using standardized recording procedures.
Study design
Participants were 159 younger (mean=19.1 years, standard deviation [SD]=1.4) and 133 older (mean=72.0 years, SD=4.8) healthy native English male and female speakers who did not currently smoke and
had typical hearing for their age group.
Methods
Participants phonated the vowel [a] under various instructions and read an abbreviated
version of the Rainbow Passage. Voice measures based on the productions of [a] included
fundamental frequency (F0), jitter, shimmer, harmonics-to-noise ratio, noise-to-harmonics ratio, maximum phonation
time, minimum phonation intensity, maximum pitch, and the Dysphonia Severity Index
(DSI). Mean speaking fundamental frequency (SF0), SF0 standard deviation (SF0SD), and signal intensity were measured from the reading passage.
Results
Noteworthy age-related differences were found for males and females. Older females
had a lower F0 and SF0 and smaller SF0SD than younger females, but younger and older males did not differ. Shimmer increased
with age for males, but neither jitter nor shimmer increased with age for females,
whereas noise measures were similar for both ages. Younger and older males had a similar
DSI, whereas older females had a higher DSI than younger females.
Conclusions
This study provides a unique database containing a wide variety of voice measures
collected from a large sample of adults in good health using standardized recording
procedures. Males and females differed on the type and extent of age-related vocal
changes, but overall age-related differences were limited.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: June 13, 2013
Accepted:
March 7,
2013
Footnotes
This study was funded by the University of Toronto at Mississauga's Research Opportunity Program and by grants from the Canada Research Chairs Program (#950-213162) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (#312308-05), both awarded to P.v.L.
Identification
Copyright
© 2013 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
