Nasalance statistics for two Mexican populations

Area of Science:

• Speech-Language Pathology
• Acoustic Phonetics
• Cross-Cultural Communication

Background:

• Nasalance measurement is crucial for assessing velopharyngeal function.
• Normative data for nasalance in Spanish-speaking populations, particularly in Mexico, is limited.
• Understanding demographic influences on nasalance is essential for accurate clinical interpretation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish normative nasalance statistics for Spanish-speaking individuals in Mexico.
• To assess the reliability of various nasalance measures.
• To investigate the impact of city, age group, and gender on nasalance scores.

Main Methods:

• 152 healthy Spanish-speaking participants were recruited across three age groups from two Mexican cities.
• Nasalance was measured using two sentence types: non-nasal (NN) and nasal (N).
• Eight nasalance statistics (means, deviations, maxima, minima) were analyzed for reliability and group differences.

Main Results:

• Nasalance measures demonstrated high reliability (Cronbach's alpha: 0.87–0.95).
• Significant differences were found across cities for NN means and N minima.
• Age groups differed in NN minima, and gender differences were observed in N minima.

Conclusions:

• The study provides reliable nasalance data for Spanish-speaking populations in Mexico.
• City, age, and gender can influence specific nasalance measures, particularly those involving nasal sounds.
• These findings aid in the accurate interpretation of nasalance in clinical speech assessments.