Objective: To identify speech characteristics that directly correlate with dysphagia in advanced Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients, using both acoustic and perceptual analyses of speech, with sex-specific differences considered.

Background: In PD, dysarthria and dysphagia are important axial symptoms that appear in the advanced stage; however, no study has focused on the direct relationship between the two. Since dysarthria often precedes dysphagia, predicting dysphagia by using speech characteristics could be helpful to prevent the complication of aspiration in advanced PD.

Method: In this retrospective study, we recruited 84 patients from data of 114 PD patients who visited Movement Disorders Clinic of Samsung Medical Center from 2017 to 2020 and underwent both speech and swallowing tests. We collected demographic data including Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale motor score, Hoehn and Yahr stage, levodopa equivalent daily dose, disease duration, videofluoroscopic swallowing study (VFSS) results, and speech analysis results. After dividing patients into penetration and non-penetration groups according to VFSS results, we investigated the speech characteristics that directly correlate with dysphagia, using both acoustic and perceptual analyses of speech.

Results: We enrolled 84 PD patients, and for each sex, no significant differences in demographic and clinical data between penetration and non-penetration groups were found, except for age in women. As the result of age-adjusted correlation, in men (n = 42), hypophonia (0.39, p = 0.01) of the perceptual analysis was a significant speech feature related to dysphagia. In women (n = 42), imprecise articulation of perceptual analysis (0.32, p = 0.04) and maximum phonation time (-0.33, p = 0.04) of acoustic analysis were significant.

Conclusion: This study discloses that the speech characteristics directly correlate with dysphagia in Korean-speaking advanced PD patients. Sex-specific differences should be considered in speech characteristics correlating with dysphagia.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/sex-specific-speech-correlates-of-dysphagia-in-parkinsons-disease/