Characterizing the Impact of Presbyphonia on Social Interaction

Summary

The purpose of this study is to determine if presbyphonia, or voice disorder caused by age-related change in the larynx, is associated with change in social interaction. This proposal investigates the impact of voice impairment in older adults on social interaction, loneliness, social disconnectedness, and depression. A series of questionnaires, voice assessments, and interviews will be performed to improve our understanding of how voice disorders affect older adults and how treatment of voice impairment with voice therapy may improve quality of life.

Conditions

• Presbyphonia

Interventions

OTHER

PhoRTE Program

Speech therapy program guided by a speech language pathologist. This program includes in person or virtual visits and at home exercises.

OTHER

University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Loneliness Scale

A questionnaire measuring levels of loneliness.

OTHER

Social Disconnectedness Scale

A questionnaire that asks about social network size and the frequency of social activities attended.

OTHER

Patient Health Questionnaire 9

A questionnaire measuring levels of depression.

OTHER

Aging Voice Index

A questionnaire of patient-reported voice outcome measures designed to capture the quality of life impact of dysphonia in older adults.

OTHER

The Edmonton Frail Scale

A questionnaire that measures frailty levels.

OTHER

Vocal Effort Scale

A picture based questionnaire scale that asks the subject to rate their perceived effort when using their voice.

OTHER

Montreal Cognitive Assessment

A screening tool used to test for cognitive impairment.

OTHER

Voice Handicap Index-10

A questionnaire used to measure quality of life impact of dysphonia.

OTHER

Voice Problem Impact Scales

A 4 question survey that captures impact of voice on four domains - work/daily activities, social life, home, and overall quality of life.

OTHER

Cough Severity Index

A 10 question survey asking to rate severity of cough.

PROCEDURE

Laryngoscopy

Nose is anesthetized and a flexible endoscope is passed to visualize the larynx at rest and during sustained vowel production (/i/) for 3-5 seconds. This will be used to measure bowing index and normalized glottal gap of the vocal folds.

OTHER

Acoustic, perceptual, and aerodynamic assessments

Participants will complete voice recording tasks including sustained vowel production, six standard sentences, and 20 seconds of natural conversational speech. This will be used to measure CAPE-V rating, Cepstral peak prominence, fundamental frequency, signal-to-noise ratio, voice type components, mean flow rate, subglottal pressure, and vocal efficiency.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Matthew R. Hoffman

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Matthew R Hoffman, MD, PhD · University of Iowa

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-01-10

Primary Completion

2026-08-31

Completion

2026-08-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations