Effects of Body Posture on Voice Range Profile Performance in Untrained Vocally Healthy Individuals

Area of Science:

• Vocal function assessment
• Acoustic analysis of voice
• Speech-language pathology

Background:

• Voice range profile (VRP) is a key acoustic measure for vocal function assessment.
• Factors influencing VRP are known, but the effect of body posture is unexplored.
• Current guidelines often suggest standing for VRP, lacking empirical support.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of sitting versus standing posture on VRP performance.
• To assess VRP outcomes in vocally healthy individuals.
• To determine if posture influences vocal function measurements.

Main Methods:

• Randomized crossover study with 30 vocally healthy participants.
• Participants underwent VRP measurements in both sitting and standing positions.
• Order of posture was counterbalanced to analyze potential training effects.

Main Results:

• No statistically significant differences in VRP parameters were observed between sitting and standing positions (p > 0.05).
• Effect sizes for posture comparisons were consistently very small or small.
• No significant training effect was found between repeated VRP measurements (p > 0.05, ICC > 0.75).

Conclusions:

• Body posture (sitting vs. standing) does not significantly affect VRP performance in healthy individuals.
• Findings suggest potential flexibility in patient positioning during VRP assessments.
• Clinical protocols may be simplified without compromising data integrity in vocally healthy populations.