title: Natural Voice Use in Patients With Voice Disorders and Vocally Healthy Speakers Based on 2 Days Voice Accumulator Information From a Database.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Information about how patients with voice disorders use their voices in natural communicative situations is scarce. Such long-term data have for the first time been uploaded to a central database from different hospitals in Sweden. The purpose was to investigate the potential use of a large set of long-term data for establishing reference values regarding voice use in natural situations.
  
  
  METHODS
  VoxLog (Sonvox AB, Umeå, Sweden) was tested for deployment in clinical practice by speech-language pathologists working at nine hospitals in Sweden. Files from 20 patients (16 females and 4 males) with functional, organic, or neurological voice disorders and 10 vocally healthy individuals (eight females and two males) were uploaded to a remote central database. All participants had vocally demanding occupations and had been monitored for more than 2 days. The total recording time was 681 hours and 50 minutes. Data on fundamental frequency (F0, Hz), phonation time (seconds and percentage), voice sound pressure level (SPL, dB), and background noise level (dB) were analyzed for each recorded day and compared between the 2 days. Variations across each day were measured using coefficients of variation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Average F0, voice SPL, and especially the level of background noise varied considerably for all participants across each day. Average F0 and voice SPL were considerably higher than reference values from laboratory recordings.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The use of a remote central database and strict protocols can accelerate data collection from larger groups of participants and contribute to establishing reference values regarding voice use in natural situations and from patients with voice disorders. Information about activities and voice symptoms would supplement the objective data and is recommended in future studies.
authors.affiliation: Division of Speech-Language Pathology, Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; Department of Speech and Language Pathology, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. Electronic address: maria.sodersten@ki.se.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Södersten
authors.affiliation: Division of Speech-Language Pathology, Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; Department of Speech, Music and Hearing, School of Computer Science and Communication, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Gláucia Laís
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Salomão
authors.affiliation: Division of Speech-Language Pathology, Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; Department of Speech and Language Pathology, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden; Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Division of Speech and Language Pathology, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.
authors.forename: Anita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McAllister
authors.affiliation: Department of Speech, Music and Hearing, School of Computer Science and Communication, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Sten
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ternström
mesh_terms: D000162:Acoustics / Q000295:instrumentation; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010699:Phonation; D011312:Pressure; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013068:Speech Production Measurement / Q000295:instrumentation; D013548:Sweden; D013997:Time Factors; D014832:Voice Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014833:Voice Quality; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Accelerometer; Fundamental frequency; Phonation time; Vocal loading; Voice SPL; Voice accumulator; Voice disorders