HONC measures in men and women: validity and variability

Horii's (1980) Oral Nasal Coupling index (HONC) was used in measures of 20 women and 20 men with normal speech to validate procedures used for assessment of disordered nasal resonance. Subjects produced sustained vowels [i] and [a], repeated single word productions of "baby" and "mamie" and nonnasal and nasal sentences. Results showed that the correction factors generated during [m] calibration procedures differed significantly between women and men, but not over time within the single measurement session. Differences were also found for the decibel levels produced in the voice channel during the [m] calibration procedure: the women used higher dB levels, particularly towards the end of the session, than the men. In addition, dB levels differed over time. Differences of 13 dB (HONC) were found to separate nonnasal from nasal sentences supporting the validity of the HONC measure. Smaller differences were found between sustained vowel and repeated single words and nasal sentences. Greater variability found for vowel productions also suggests that the sentence stimuli may be more effective for demonstrating hyper- or hyponasality.