title: The effect of snoring on voice: a controlled study of 30 subjects.
abstract: We conducted a study to determine the prevalence of vocal symptoms in snorers. A total of 30 patients with a history of snoring were investigated for the presence or absence of three vocal symptoms immediately after they awoke from sleep: hoarseness, voice weakness, and other changes in voice quality. All patients were also asked to complete a voice-related quality-of-life (V-RQOL) questionnaire. Findings were compared with those of an age- and sex-matched control group of 30 nonsnorers. The most common vocal symptom in the snoring group was hoarseness, which occurred in 11 patients (36.7%); voice weakness and other voice quality changes were present in 8 snorers each (26.7%). In the control group, the most common vocal symptom was voice weakness, which was present in 7 subjects (23.3%); 5 controls (16.7%) experienced other changes in voice quality, and 3 controls (10.0%) experienced hoarseness. The difference between the prevalence of hoarseness in the two groups was statistically significant (p = 0.030), and the differences in voice weakness and other voice quality changes were not. The mean V-RQOL score was 87.50 ± 26.89 in the snoring group and 96.00 ± 5.82 in the control group-again, not a statistically significant difference. Finally, we found no association between any of the three vocal symptoms and the prevalence of mouth breathing, the level of snoring loudness, and the mean number of snores per minute. We conclude that snorers are more likely to experience hoarseness than are nonsnorers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, American University of Beirut, PO Box 11-0236, Beirut, Lebanon. ah77@aub.edu.lb
authors.forename: Abdul Latif
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Hamdan
authors.forename: Randa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Al-Barazi
authors.forename: Alyssa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kanaan
authors.forename: Wasan
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Al-Tamimi
authors.forename: Solara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sinno
authors.forename: Ahmad
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Husari
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006685:Hoarseness / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D012913:Snoring / Q000150:complications*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014832:Voice Disorders / Q000209:etiology*