Age-Related Vocal Changes Often
Misdiagnosed, Study
Finds
A
new study of people age 70 to 80 suggests
that the human voice undergoes many
changes during the normal aging process,
returning some men to the higher-pitched
tone they once had before adulthood and
leaving some women with a deeper
voice.
Researchers
say the study points to the need for an
acoustical test to accurately monitor
potential voice disorders in the elderly.
Currently, speech pathologists use tests
based on the voice patterns of young and
middle-aged people, which can lead them to
confuse normal vocal changes related to
aging with a voice or speech
disorder.
The
study, which included 21 men and 23 women,
was completed last year and presented
Saturday at the annual meeting of the
American Speech-Language-Hearing
Association in San Francisco.
Researchers
collected voice samples and examined
frequency, pitch, tone and other vocal
characteristics from the elderly study
participants and compared those findings
with earlier studies of young and
middle-aged people. Using acoustical
devices currently employed by speech
pathologists which are based on normal
speech by younger people the researchers
found that the elderly study participants
had significantly poorer vocal quality
than their younger cohorts.
For
more information, please read the
full
text of this news
release.
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