Evaluation of Voice Parameters in People with Head and Neck Cancers: An Investigational Study

Abstract

Background: A Head and Neck (H&N) cancer severely affect the voice and compromises the patient’s vocal independence. The present study proposed to investigate the difference in the three vital components of voice the pitch, jitter and shimmer in H&N cancer patients and compared it with age matched healthy volunteers.Methods: The voice parameters were ascertained in the freshly diagnosed H&N cancer patients and controls using the voice analysis software PRAAT and Dynamic Unidirectional AUD-59 XLR microphone in a sound proof voice recording laboratoryResults: The result indicates that a considerable change in the three voice indices, the pitch, jitter and shimmer were observed. On a gender perspective it was observed that the changes in all the three indices were significant for men (p < 0.015 to 0.0001), while it was significant in women (p = 0.0001) only for pitch.Conclusion: The results suggest that all individuals with any form of head and neck cancer will have some amount of voice problems even before the initiation of the cancer treatments and that the voice assessment is a vital aspect to be considered before initiation of the treatment.