Stuttered disfluencies in Parkinson's disease: Longitudinal changes

Acquired neurogenic stuttering occurs in approximately 1 in 5 people with Parkinson's disease. It is currently unknown how stuttering changes as the disease progresses.

Examine longitudinal changes in the frequency of stuttered disfluencies in individuals with Parkinson's disease.

We measured stuttered disfluencies in 63 people with Parkinson's disease in conversation, picture description, and reading samples. All participants completed at least two assessment sessions, a mean of 2.9 years (± 1.5) apart. Nineteen completed a third session, and two a fourth. Bayesian hierarchical models were fitted to examine changes in the frequency of stuttered syllables over time for each speech task, accounting for baseline demographic (age, sex) and disease-associated variables (symptom duration, motor functioning, cognition, and medication dosage).

At baseline, the mean frequency of stuttered syllables was 2.1% (±1.4) during conversation, 1.4% (±1.4) during picture description, and 0.6% (±0.8) during reading. At baseline, 18% of participants exceeded a ≥ 3% stuttered disfluencies threshold for stuttering identification, while 38% met this threshold during follow up sessions. The group-level statistical models estimated an annual increase in stuttered disfluencies of 0.1 (95%CI [+0.0, 0.2]) for conversation and 0.2 (95%CI [+0.0, 0.3]) for picture description, but no increase for reading.

Group-level analyses indicated a small but progressive increase in stuttered disfluencies over time in individuals with Parkinson's disease. A subgroup of individuals showed more pronounced increases, exceeding a diagnostic threshold for stuttering. These findings highlight the importance of longitudinal monitoring to enable timely, targeted intervention for those impacted by speech disfluencies.