Fundamental frequency, phonation maximum time and vocal complaints in morbidly obese women

Background : Obese people have abnormal deposition of fat in the vocal tract that can interfere with the acoustic voice. Aim : To relate the fundamental frequency, the maximum phonation time and voice complaints from a group of morbidly obese women. Methods : Observational, cross-sectional and descriptive study that included 44 morbidly obese women, mean age of 42.45 (±10.31) years old, observational group and 30 women without obesity, control group, with 33.79 (±4.51)years old. The voice recording was done in a quiet environment, on a laptop using the program ANAGRAF acoustic analysis of speech sounds. To extract the values of fundamental frequency the subjects were asked to produce vowel [a] at usual intensity for a period in average of three seconds. After the voice recording, participants were prompted to produce sustained vowel [ a] , [ i] and [ u] at usual intensity and height, using a stopwatch to measure the time that each participant could hold each vowel. Results : The majority, 31(70.5%), had vocal complaints, with a higher percentage for complaints of vocal fatigue 20(64.51%) and voice failures 19(61.29%) followed by dryness of the throat in 15 (48.38%) and effort to speak 13(41.93%). There was no statistically significant difference regarding the mean fundamental frequency of the voice in both groups, but there was significance between the two groups regarding maximum phonation. Conclusion : Increased adipose tissue in the vocal tract interfered in the vocal parameters.

背景：肥胖人群的声道内存在异常脂肪沉积，该情况可对声学嗓音产生干扰。目的：探究一组病态肥胖（morbidly obese）女性的基频（fundamental frequency）、最长发声时间（maximum phonation time）与嗓音主诉之间的关联。方法：本研究为观察性、横断面描述性研究，纳入44名病态肥胖（morbidly obese）女性作为观察组，其平均年龄为42.45±10.31岁；同时纳入30名无肥胖的女性作为对照组，平均年龄为33.79±4.51岁。嗓音录制于安静环境中，使用笔记本电脑搭载的ANAGRAF语音声学分析程序完成。为提取基频数值，要求受试者以常规发声强度发元音[a]，平均发声时长为3秒。嗓音录制完成后，要求受试者以常规强度和音调持续发元音[a]、[i]及[u]，并使用秒表测量每位受试者维持各元音的时长。结果：受试者中多数（31例，占70.5%）存在嗓音主诉，其中以嗓音疲劳（vocal fatigue）、发声困难（voice failures）占比最高，分别为20例（64.51%）、19例（61.29%），其次为咽喉干燥（dryness of the throat）15例（48.38%）与发声费力（effort to speak）13例（41.93%）。两组受试者的嗓音平均基频无统计学差异，但在最长发声时长方面两组间存在统计学显著性差异。结论：声道内脂肪组织增多可对嗓音参数产生干扰。