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Evaluation of Acoustic Characteristics of Voice Before and After Bariatric Surgery
1Department of Speech and Language Therapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, Istanbul Atlas University, Istanbul, Turkey.
Purpose:
This study aims to evaluate the effect of obesity on phonation quality by examining changes in voice parameters in obese individuals who experienced weight loss after bariatric surgery, and to reveal the reflections of anatomical and physiological changes due to weight loss on voice characteristics.
Study Design:
Prospective study.
Methods:
Fifteen female patients who underwent bariatric surgery were included in the study. The voice parameters of the participants were evaluated preoperatively and at the 3rd postoperative month. Demographic data were recorded during the evaluation; the Voice Handicap Index (VHI-10) and Grade, Roughness, Breathiness, Asthenia, Strain (GRBAS) scales were used for perceptual analysis. Voice recordings were obtained according to determined phonation and speech tasks; acoustic analyses were performed using MDVP software. Additionally, cepstral analyses were conducted using ADSV software. Aerodynamic evaluations were performed via maximum phonation time (MPT) measurement.
Results:
At the 3rd month after sleeve gastrectomy, the mean body weight of the participants decreased from 104.60 ± 10.84 kg preoperatively to 81.73 ± 12.29 kg postoperatively; BMI decreased from 41.26 to 31.11 (p=0.001). Improvements in GRBAS and VHI-10 scores (p=0.003, p=0.041), and increases in SPI and MPT values (p=0.041, p<0.001) were detected. In cepstral analysis, significant changes were observed in CPP F0, CPP, and L/H Ratio SD parameters in certain sentence types (p<0.05).
Conclusion:
Weight loss associated with bariatric surgery may lead to improvement in voice outcomes; however, the mechanisms underlying this improvement have not been fully elucidated. The findings suggest that physiological changes due to weight loss may strengthen respiration-phonation coordination, increase MPT, and improve certain aspects of vocal harmonic regularity. However, the limited change in fundamental acoustic parameters suggests that this effect may be multidimensional and individual-specific.
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