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

• Autor(a) principal: SOUZA,Lourdes Bernadete Rocha de
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Outros Autores: PEREIRA,Rayane Medeiros, SANTOS,Marquiony Marques dos, GODOY,Cynthia Meida de Almeida
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: ABCD. Arquivos Brasileiros de Cirurgia Digestiva (São Paulo)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0102-67202014000100043
• topic: Obesity, morbid; Voice; Adipose tissue; Bariatric surgery

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.