Relationship between postural cephalic pattern and speech intelligibility

ABSTRACT Purpose: the objective of this study was to establish an associative factor that connects the morphology of the craniocervical system with the articulatory speech intelligibility level in young subjects. Methods: a cross-sectional study which considered a sample of 42 university students from a universe of 140, both male and female, without morbid background ranging between 18 and 21 years of age. Evaluated aspects: a) articulatory intelligibility by the diadochokinetic periodic variation coefficient, b) traditional static postural parameters using the photogrammetric method, and c) cephalic postural pattern by lateral cephalometry (X-ray) Results: 36 subjects with adequate intelligibility and 6 with altered intelligibility where the anteroposterior cranio-cervical rotation variable showed significant differences (p = 0.009) between the group with normal intelligibility and the group with impaired intelligibility. The linear regression analysis demonstrated that subjects with posterior head-neck rotation exhibited more variability in the syllable emission of diadochokinetic speech performance (Sq r linear = 0.128). Conclusion: it is established that the cephalic position with subsequent posterior head-neck rotation is associated with the loss of speech intelligibility in the studied sample.

摘要 研究目的：本研究旨在建立关联因子，以明确年轻受试者颅颈系统形态与发音言语清晰度水平之间的关联。研究方法：本研究为横断面研究，纳入140名健康大学生中的42名作为研究样本，年龄介于18至21岁，无既往病史，男女均包含在内。评估维度包括：a) 采用轮替言语运动（diadochokinetic）周期变异系数评估发音清晰度；b) 采用摄影测量法测定传统静态姿势参数；c) 采用侧位头颅测量法（X射线）分析头颅姿势模式。研究结果：最终纳入的受试者中，36名言语清晰度正常，6名言语清晰度受损。言语清晰度正常组与受损组的前后向颅颈旋转变量存在显著差异（p=0.009）。线性回归分析显示，头颈后旋的受试者在轮替言语运动任务的音节发音变异性更高（线性回归平方和Sq r linear=0.128）。研究结论：本研究证实，在本次研究样本中，伴随头颈后旋的头颅姿势与言语清晰度受损存在显著关联。