Voice Disorders
Conditions
Interventions
This is a single-blind, two-arm, randomized controlled clinical trial. The aim of this study is to verify the effects of Terapia Vocal para Idosos (TVI), which is a Vocal Therapy for the Elderly, when
s consent must be a different person from those responsible for the therapies and those responsible for the evaluation procedures, in order to ensure the blinding nature of the study.
Sponsors
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte
Eligibility
Age
60 Years to No maximum
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: Elderly women or men (aged 60 or older) who have been diagnosed with presbyphonia
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria: Structural changes or laryngeal lesions unrelated to aging; diagnosis of head and neck cancer or neurological diseases; smoking or being smoke-free for less than five years; previous laryngeal surgery; previous speech therapy in the last two years
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| To assess the characteristics of the sample through a questionnaire.;To assess how participants self-assessed themselves, using the Voice Handicap Index 10 (VHI-10) questionnaire, validated in Brazil (Costa; Oliveira; Behlau, 2013); and the Aging Voice Index (AVI), translated to Brazilian Portuguese. The total score for each questionnaire will be calculated to verify if there was a change in the different moments of evaluation.;To assess perceptual-auditory judgment, three judges experienced in perceptual-auditory judgment of voice will receive recordings of the individuals' voices on a drive, archived in a way that allows for the comparison of voice samples from the same patient, unidentified and randomized, corresponding to different evaluation times (pre-, immediately post-, or one month post-). The analysis of vocal quality will be performed in a paired manner, and the evaluator must indicate, for each parameter, the behavior of emission "B" in relation to emission "A", indicating whether the analyzed aspect increased, decreased, or showed no difference. The voices will be evaluated based on the following parameters: grade, roughness, breathiness, asthenia, strain, and instability. To verify intra-rater reliability, 10% of the samples will be repeated. The classification of the judges will be observed to verify if there was a change in the different moments of evaluation.;Evaluate the acoustic analysis of the vocal signal using the VOXplot program, selecting the medial three seconds of the sustained vowel "a" and counting from one to 11. The following acoustic parameters and indices will be extracted: fundamental frequency (fo), standard deviation and its cycle-by-cycle variations (jitter and shimmer), harmonic-to-noise ratio (HNR), Cepstral Peak Prominence Smoothed (CPPS), Acoustic Voice Quality Index (AVQI), Acoustic Breathiness Index (ABI), and Acoustic Voice Tremor Indices AVTI and APTI. A quantitative assessment of oral an | — |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Evaluate Peak Expiratory Flow using a portable device (MicroLife PF100) to obtain Peak Expiratory Flow (PEF) values. Each individual will be instructed to place a nose clip, hold the device, place their lips around the mouthpiece of the device, and "exhale with as much force as possible." This task will be performed three times, with a rest interval between each repetition. The highest value will be considered for analysis. The values ??obtained will be observed to verify if there was a change in the different moments of evaluation.;Evaluate treatment adherence using the URICA-Vv scale for identifying stages of readiness for voice treatment (Aguiar et al., 2020) and the data regarding session attendance, number of absences, treatment dropout, and treatment completion. This data will be compared between groups, diagnosis types, sex, and age. The stage and data will be observed to verify if there has been a change in the different moments of evaluation.;To screen symptoms of dysphagia, the Oropharyngeal Dysphagia Screening Scale for the Elderly (RaDI), validated in Brazil (Magalhães, 2019), will be used. This scale has nine simple questions that identify an individual's risk of oropharyngeal dysphagia. The total score will be observed to check for changes in the different moments of evaluation. | — |
Countries
Brazil
Contacts
Public ContactJuliana Godoy
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte
Outcome results
None listed