Normative nasalance scores in Chilean adults.

Purpose: The present study is aimed towards determining and comparing normative nasalance scores in Chilean Spanish-speaking adult men and women.

Methods: 40 women (age range 18 to 35, X = 25.79, SD = 5.83) and 36 men (age range 18 to 35, X = 26.45, SD = 4.08) were invited to participate, all of them without any previous speech therapy, neurological pathologies, intellectual deficits, hearing loss, syndromes, or other diagnosed pathologies that could impact speech production.A study of proper velopharyngeal function was performed, using a perceptual resonance evaluation. Nasalance was determined using a model 6450 Nasometer, during the reading of three standardized speech samples in Spanish: a nasal passage (NP), an oronasal passage (ONP), and an oral passage (OP). Also, the nasalance distance was calculated. Genders were compared using Wilcoxon tests for independent samples.

Results: The NP presented the highest percentage of nasalance, with 52.13% (± 4.73), followed by the ONP with 25.38% (± 3.7), and finally the OP, which presented the lowest value of 14.15% (± 5.03). Meanwhile, nasalance distance was 37.98% (± 5.32). Finally, no significant differences were observed when comparing the nasalance between genders (p >0.05).

Conclusion: The nasalance values obtained were similar to those observed for other Spanish speakers. Also, male and women showed similar scores. The results of this study are a contribution to the indirect assessment of velopharyngeal function in Chilean adults.