Characterizing the impact of presbyphonia on social interaction

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Approximately 20% of older adults in the United States have a voice disorder. One of the most common voice disorders in older adults is presbyphonia, related to changes in the larynx and respiratory system that occur with aging. Persons with presbyphonia have softer, weaker, rougher voices. As a result, they have a harder time communicating and participating in social activities. This can lead to adverse effects on social interaction, overall well-being, and cascade into loneliness, depression, and worse quality of life. While patients commonly report these challenges, the relationship between voice impairment and social interaction has not been adequately studied in older adults. We seek to further understand the impact of presbyphonia on social function and well-being. We hypothesize that older adults with presbyphonia will exhibit elevated social isolation and disconnectedness scores as compared to age-matched control participants without voice disorders. Furthermore, we hypothesize that social isolation and social disconnectedness scores will improve after participation in a voice therapy program specifically designed for older adults with presbyphonia, phonation resistance training exercises (PhoRTE). We will use validated social interaction and voice questionnaires, functional voice assessments, and structured interviews to gain a comprehensive understanding of how presbyphonia affects older adults and what effects participation in voice therapy may have on voice function and social interaction. Our proposed research is innovative as it provides a comprehensive characterization of voice from both functional and social perspectives. Our project is unique because we plan to employ a combination of validated patient-reported outcome measures, innovative voice acoustic analysis, aerodynamic parameters, perceptual voice analysis, and structured interviews with innovative recall technique (Photovoice) to better understand the impact of presbyphonia on social interaction and mood. There are very few studies have utilized Photovoice, which is a qualitative assessment tool where participants take photographs using a camera to document needs and concerns from their own viewpoints. This will enable us to understand our participants’ environments that they may not share during interview. An investigative team with expertise in speech pathology, laryngology, gerontology, qualitative interviewing, acoustic and aerodynamic analysis, and patient-reported outcomes has been assembled to strengthen the quality of the proposed research. This study is significant because it will improve our understanding of how voice disorders affect older adults from a comprehensive perspective. Given the importance of voice in social interaction, and the risks to general health that can occur with social isolation, characterizing this impact is clinically and scientifically valuable. Our work will be able to help a large population of older adults struggling with voice disorders.