Immediate effects of a semi-occluded water-resistance ventilation mask on vocal outcomes in women with dysphonia.

J Commun Disord

Centre for Speech and Language Sciences, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium; Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium; Royal Conservatory Brussels, Musical Department, Brussels, Belgium.

Published: June 2023

AI Article Synopsis

  • The study explored the effectiveness of a new vocal exercise technique called the semi-occluded water resistance ventilation mask (SOVM-WR) for women with dysphonia, aiming to incorporate continuous speech into voice therapy.
  • A controlled trial with 20 participants showed no significant changes in objective vocal measures after the therapy, but there were notable improvements in patient-reported outcomes like vocal comfort and quality for both the new and control methods.
  • The results suggest that while SOVM-WR is comparable to traditional water resistance therapy, further research is needed to assess its long-term benefits and effectiveness in enhancing spontaneous speech communication.

Article Abstract

Introduction: Semi-occluded vocal tract exercises (SOVTEs) are frequently used exercises in voice therapy. An important shortcoming to most SOVTEs is the inability to include continuous speech in these exercises. A variation of water-resistance therapy (WRT), during which a patient phonates through a resonance tube ending in water, was developed to include continuous speech: the semi-occluded water resistance ventilation mask (SOVM-WR). The current study investigated the immediate effects of this innovative technique on vocal outcomes of women with dysphonia.

Methods: A pretest-posttest randomized controlled trial was performed. Twenty female participants were randomly assigned to the experimental SOVM-WR group or the WRT (control) group. A blinded multidimensional voice assessment was conducted before and after a 30-minute therapy session with the assigned technique.

Results: No significant changes were found in acoustic or auditory-perceptual vocal outcomes in either of the groups, except for a significant increase in lowest frequency in both groups. Patient-reported outcomes (PROMs) showed significant improvements of vocal comfort, vocal effort, and voice quality in both groups, and participants indicated that they would use the techniques at home.

Conclusions: The similar results of the SOVM-WR to WRT and promising PROMs confirm its suitability as an alternative to the latter technique. Potential reasons for a lack of improvement of objective and auditory-perceptual vocal outcomes are vocal fatigue, tube dimensions and immersion, and the small sample size. Large-scale and longitudinal research is needed to examine whether the SOVM-WR has a higher transfer to spontaneous speech than WRT after a full therapy program.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcomdis.2023.106331DOI Listing

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