Objective: To compare voice, speech, swallowing and drooling problems in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients with healthy individuals (HI) by using objective and subjective methods and to establish the defining characteristics of PD patients with these problems.

Background: PD is associated with a number of disorders that negatively affect the quality of life of patients such as voice, speech, swallowing and drooling problems. As far as we know, there is no study directly comparing voice, speech, swallowing and drooling problems between HI and PD patients.

Method: 43 patients with PD and 43 HI matched for age and sex were included in the study. Prolonged production of /a/, /s/, and /z/ was requested to measure maximum phonation time (MPT) from each participant. Praat software and Audacity software were used for acoustic sound analysis. Each participant was asked to first produce the extended vowel /a/ for more than 3 seconds with a comfortable loudness and pitch, wait 2 seconds, and then read the first sentence of the Turkish “Diyet” passage. Voice Handicap Index (VHI), visual analog scale (VAS) for self-assessment of speech and voice, Eating Evaluation Tool (EAT-10) and the Sialorrhea Clinical Scale for PD (SCS-PD) were used. All tasks were performed during the “ON state” of all patients.

Results: There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of age and gender. MPT (/a/, /s/, /z/) was decreased in PD patients (p<0.05). Acoustic sound analysis revealed a statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of the standard deviation of the fundamental frequency (SD F0), the maximum F0 and the acoustic sound quality index (AVQI) values ​​(p<0.05). However, there was no significant difference between the groups in jitter, shimmer and HNR values. VAS for voice, VAS for speech, VHI, EAT-10 and SCS-PD scores were higher in PD patients (p<0.05).

Conclusion: This study reveals that patients with PD have decreased MPT and have more problems with voice and speech, swallowing and drooling compared to HI. Dysphagia and sialorrhea is likely to contribute to the voice and speech problems of PD patients. Evaluation of this problems by considering different dimensions will guide future research in terms of developing and combining different treatment approaches for PD patients.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/comparison-of-voice-speech-swallowing-and-drooling-problems-in-parkinsons-disease-patients-with-healthy-individuals/