The Usefulness of Auditory Perceptual Assessment and Acoustic Analysis for Classifying the Voice Severity

The aims of this study were to (1) to determine the cut-off values of parameters related to auditory perceptual assessment (visual analog scale) and acoustic analysis (cepstral peak prominence, low frequency/high frequency ratio, cepstral peak prominence standard deviation, low frequency/high frequency ratio standard deviation, acoustic voice quality index, and cepstral spectral index of dysphonia) for predicting the voice severity within a Korean population; and (2) to verify the discriminative power of these cut-off values.

Voice samples of 1,029 subjects who visited Pusan National University Hospital, South Korea to be treated for swallowing or voice evaluation from January 2018 to December 2018 were analyzed in this retrospective study. The acoustic analysis of cepstral parameters, cepstral spectral index of dysphonia, and acoustic voice quality index were calculated using the Computerized Speech Lab and Praat software. The cut-off values of parameters predicting the voice severities were obtained using receiver operating characteristic analysis. Through this analysis, the sensitivity, specificity, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) were measured.

High reliabilities of auditory perceptual assessments were observed for the auditory perceptual assessment. The cut-off values of parameters predicting voice severities had high sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve.

The cut-off values of parameters predicting the voice severities demonstrated a high power to discriminate for classifying the voice severities within a Korean population. The results of this study could be used as objective criteria to screen for severities of voice disorders.