Summary
Objectives
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.
Study Design
Retrospective study.
Methods
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.
Results
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.
Conclusions
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.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: September 06, 2022
Accepted:
August 2,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Corrected ProofFootnotes
This work was not supported by any funding.
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
