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Reliable jitter and shimmer measurements in voice clinics: the relevance of vowel, gender, vocal intensity, and fundamental frequency effects in a typical clinical task.
Journal article

Reliable jitter and shimmer measurements in voice clinics: the relevance of vowel, gender, vocal intensity, and fundamental frequency effects in a typical clinical task.

  • Brockmann M Speech Pathology Section, Department of Phoniatry and Speech Pathology, Clinic for Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. meike.brockmann@ncl.ac.uk
  • Drinnan MJ
  • Storck C
  • Carding PN
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  • 2010-04-13
Published in:
  • Journal of voice : official journal of the Voice Foundation. - 2011
Adult
Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Humans
Male
Pattern Recognition, Automated
Phonation
Predictive Value of Tests
Pressure
Reproducibility of Results
Sex Factors
Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted
Software
Speech Acoustics
Speech Production Measurement
Speech-Language Pathology
Voice Disorders
Voice Quality
Young Adult
English The aims of this study were to examine vowel and gender effects on jitter and shimmer in a typical clinical voice task while correcting for the confounding effects of voice sound pressure level (SPL) and fundamental frequency (F(0)). Furthermore the relative effect sizes of vowel, gender, voice SPL, and F(0) were assessed, and recommendations for clinical measurements were derived. With this cross-sectional single cohort study, 57 healthy adults (28 women, 29 men) aged 20-40 years were investigated. Three phonations of /a/, /o/, and /i/ at "normal" voice loudness were analyzed using Praat (software). The effects of vowel, gender, voice SPL, and F(0) on jitter and shimmer were assessed using descriptive and inferential (analysis of covariance) statistics. The effect sizes were determined with the eta-squared statistic. Vowels, gender, voice SPL, and F(0), each had significant effects either on jitter or on shimmer, or both. Voice SPL was the most important factor, whereas vowel, gender, and F(0) effects were comparatively small. Because men had systematically higher voice SPL, the gender effects on jitter and shimmer were smaller when correcting for SPL and F(0). Surprisingly, in clinical assessments, voice SPL has the single biggest impact on jitter and shimmer. Vowel and gender effects were clinically important, whereas fundamental frequency had a relatively small influence. Phonations at a predefined voice SPL (80 dB minimum) and vowel (/a/) would enhance measurement reliability. Furthermore, gender-specific thresholds applying these guidelines should be established. However, the efficiency of these measures should be verified and tested with patients.
Language
  • English
Open access status
closed
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/global/documents/253540
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