Respiratory Dynamics of Vocally Healthy Elderly Women during Phonatory Tasks to Assess Vocal Functionality: Normative Data for Clinical Practice

• Grant number: 24/17744-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2024
• End date: November 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Speech Therapy
• Principal Investigator: Rosiane Kimiko Yamasaki Odagima
• Grantee: Beatriz Amâncio Neves
• Host Institution: Escola Paulista de Medicina (EPM). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 23/11420-2 - Respiratory, laryngeal and vocal tract articulators dynamics of vocally healthy young to elderly adults during phonation tasks to assess vocal functionality and morphophysiology of vocal techniques, AP.R

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The aging process involves expected morphophysiological changes in the respiratory, phonatory and resonant subsystems. Studies show the existence of an important relationship between the respiratory and phonatory subsystems, more specifically between lung volume and glottal adduction. Despite the importance of the respiratory subsystem in vocal production, there is still a lack of studies showing respiratory dynamics in vocal functionality tasks, particularly in elderly individuals. The dynamic vocal field (CDV) is a perceptual-auditory and acoustic strategy that allows the assessment of vocal functionality through tasks involving frequency and intensity variation. OBJECTIVES: 1. To investigate the respiratory dynamics of vocally healthy elderly women during the performance of the CDV using inductance plethysmography; 2. To generate normative data for clinical practice on the respiratory dynamics of elderly women. METHOD: This is a cross-sectional study approved by the Research Ethics Committee, number 6,946,377. Thirty-six elderly women, aged 60 to 80 years, will participate in the research. Participants will perform phonatory tasks of the CDV: counting numbers from 1 to 30 in three intensities (habitual, soft, and loud); and sustained vowel "é" in three intensities (habitual, soft, and loud) and three frequencies (habitual, high, and low). Respiratory dynamics will be analyzed by inductance plethysmography using two respiratory belts: the first will be positioned at the height of the armpit (expandability of the rib cage region); the second will be placed on the diaphragmatic region (expansibility of the diaphragm region). The parameters of the analysis plethysmography will be: number and duration of respiratory cycles in the number counting; and measurements of the amplitude of inspiratory and expiratory movements during the connected speech and sustained vowel tasks, in mV. For reproducibility analysis, the tasks will be repeated twice, consecutively. FORM OF ANALYSIS OF RESULTS: Comparative and reproducibility analyses will be carried out to obtain normative data for clinical practice on the respiratory dynamics of elderly women in CDV tasks.