Summary
Purpose
Semi-occluded vocal tract exercises (SOVTE) may improve the source and filter interaction
by changing the acoustic characteristics and the impedance of the vocal tract, both
in dysphonic and vocally healthy populations. However, there are a few studies that
verify the effects of these exercises in a clinical trial. Thus, this study's purpose
was to analyze the effectiveness of the SOVTE-Therapeutic Program (SOVTE-TP) in vocal
quality and self-assessment, comparing it with Vocal Function Exercises.
Method
Eighteen (eight men; 10 women), ages 18-50, with behavioral dysphonia participated
in this randomized and blinded clinical trial. The participants were equally randomized
into two groups: Experimental Group and Vocal Function Exercises Group. They were
assessed at three moments: before the treatment, after finishing it, and one month
after finishing the treatment––follow up. Acoustic measures (ie, fundamental frequency,
jitter, shimmer, noise-to-harmonic ratio, cepstral peak-smoothed, alpha ratio, and
L1-L0), auditory-perceptual analysis, vocal fatigue index (VFI), self-perceived resonant
voice, and vocal handicap index-30 (VHI-30) were measured at all assessment moments.
For the two groups, the interventions happened twice per week (four weeks) and lasted
35 minutes. It was applied the repeated-measures ANOVA test (P< 0.05) and Tukey Test.
Results
The acoustic measures and auditory-perceptual had no differences between the groups
and moments, respectively, which means that SOVTE-TP did not cause any harm. The auditory-perceptual
analysis showed a mild deviation of participants' vocal quality. All groups reduced
the VFI and VHI-30 scores in M2 and kept these results at M3 also, the vocal economy
sensation increased in M2, decreasing slightly in M3.
Conclusion
SOVTE-TP has positive effects regarding self-assessment (VFI, VHI, and resonant voice
quality) on patients with mild behavioral dysphonia, and it provides the same effects
as VFE.
Key words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 04, 2021
Accepted:
December 9,
2020
Footnotes
We would like to thank the São Paulo Research Foundation (grant number: 2018/02296-8) and the Coordination of Superior Level Staff Improvement (financing 0001) for financially supporting our study.
Identification
Copyright
© 2020 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
