Purpose
: We verify if the clinical context interferes in the assessment of vocal deviation, considering the overall degree of severity.
Methods
: We selected 22 voice recordings of 12 women and 10 men diagnosed with organic or functional dysphonia, aged between 25 and 75 years old, pre-and post-therapy. The vocal sample was analyzed by two SLP voice specialists, one of which (SLP-1) was the patients’ therapist and conducted a contextualized clinical assessment. On the other hand, the second voice specialist (SLP-2), did not know any of the patients and conducted the assessment only by listening to the recordings. The speech material used was the sustained vowel /e/ and continuous speech (number counting 1 to 10). The overall degree of vocal deviation should be marked on a visual analog scale of 100 mm.
Results
: In the sustained vowel the SLP-1 produced an average of 53.8 on pre-therapy evaluation (range 17 to 100), while the SLP-2 produced an average of 62.8 (range 32 to 100). In the post-therapy assessments, the average was 22.8 for SLP-1 (range 7 to 47), and 51.9 for SLP-2 (range 28 to 92). To the continuous speech the post-therapy assessments was the only with significant difference, the SLP-1 produced an average of 18.41 (range 5 to 55) while the SLP-2 produced an average of 43.55 (range 18 to 80).
Conclusion
: The sustained vowel suffers more influences of demographic data and diagnostic vocal than continuous speech.
Voice; Voice quality; Voice disorders; Speech therapy; Demographic data