A Study of Acoustic Parameters of Normal Voice in Medical Undergraduate Students

Abstract

Introduction: The study of normative data of voice is very important to aid in the identification of pathological voices. Aim: To establish a database of normal acoustic parameters in medical undergraduate students. Materials & Method: The study was carried out at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, on 200 medical undergraduates of both sexes, aged from 18 to 25 years. All were subjected to computerized acoustic analysis using FONOS software. The analyses of the vocal parameters were carried out with the sustained /a/ vowel. The studied acoustic parameters were the fundamental frequency, shimmer and jitter disturbance measures, and the harmonic/noise ratios. Results: The group mean (standard deviations) for males and females for fundamental frequency were 150Hz(39.03) and 208 Hz(44.78) respectively. Jitter (SD) for males and females were 2.54 %(3.11) and 2.21 %(3.14) respectively. Shimmer mean (SD) for males and females were 0.90 dB(0.80) and 0.92 dB (1.13) respectively. HNR (SD) for males and females were 6.01 dB(4.57) and 5.30 dB(5.03) respectively. Conclusion: The significant difference in the fundamental frequency average values in function of gender, found in the present study was expected, since it is influenced by the length of the vocal folds, which is longer in males. This difference has been often pointed out in the literature.