Objective:Voice is a vital tool for human communication, and its health spans across various stages of an individual's life cycle. This article discuss the importance of voice health from a lifecycle perspective, exploring the needs of voice, phonatory organ changes, the main etiologies and their incidence, the impact on social function, and treatment of voice disorders at different stages （childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age）. During childhood, due to incomplete vocal cords development and weak behavioral control, the incidence of voice disorders is high, which adversely affects children's psychological and social function development. The most common condition is vocal nodules, and there has been insufficient attention to the treatment of voice disorders in this stage. Voice disorders during adolescence are mainly related to physiological development and hormonal changes. In the elderly, the larynx undergoes structural and functional aging, which can be delayed with active intervention and treatment. Therefor, maintaining voice health should focus on preventing and managing voice problems throughout the entire life cycle, with targeted voice care and intervention at each stage. Establishing a comprehensive voice health management framework thereby upholds an individual's optimal health status and social function.
Humans ; Voice Disorders/etiology* ; Adolescent ; Child ; Adult ; Voice/physiology* ; Voice Quality ; Vocal Cords ; Aging/physiology* ; Aged

Carcinoma, Papillary ; surgery ; Carotid Arteries ; surgery ; Diffusion of Innovation ; Humans ; Knowledge ; Laryngeal Neoplasms ; surgery ; Laryngectomy ; methods ; Reconstructive Surgical Procedures ; methods ; Surgical Flaps ; Thyroid Neoplasms ; surgery ; Thyroidectomy ; methods ; Voice Disorders ; etiology ; surgery

Cysts ; complications ; pathology ; Epithelial Cells ; pathology ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve Injuries ; Thyroid Diseases ; complications ; pathology ; Voice Disorders ; etiology

OBJECTIVE: To explore parameters which can discriminate the voice of smoke and alcohol abuse and healthy voice by contrasting the voice parameters of two groups, and to study the pathogenic mechanism of the adverse effect of smoke and alcohol abuse to voice by the change of parameters. METHOD: Selecting 33 male subjects with smoke and alcohol abuse, and selecting other 33 healthy male subjects with no smoking and alcohol abuse and no ENT disease as control, randomly. Assessed by "vocal assessment", each subject was required to phonate /ae/ for 3 s, voice parameters including F0, Jitter, NNE and CQ were collected for multivariate analysis. RESULT: There were significant difference between smoke and alcohol abuse group and controlled group on the voice parameters (P < 0.01). F0 of the former is significantly lower than that of the latter (P < 0.01). Jitter of the former is significantly larger than that of the latter (P < 0.01). NNE of the former is significantly larger than that of the latter. CQ of the former is significantly smaller than that of the latter (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION Smoke and alcohol abuse had the adverse effect on the human voice. Both theory and experiment analysis were useful methods of selecting sensitive parameters. F0, Jitter, NNE and CQ were effect parameters which can reflect the voice characteristic of smoke and alcohol abuse, and can be used to monitor the effect of therapy for this kind of pathological voice.
Adult ; Alcohol Drinking ; Alcoholism ; Case-Control Studies ; Humans ; Male ; Smoke ; Tobacco Use Disorder ; epidemiology ; Voice Disorders ; etiology ; Voice Quality

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the epidemic features and risk factors of voice diseases of 5758 business dealers. METHOD: Questionnaire survey was conducted among 5785 business dealers of four markets in Yiwu city by random cluster sampling from March to July, 2006. They were also examined by indirect laryngoscopy. The incidence of voice disease was calculated and the risk factors were evaluated in four markets. RESULT: The incidence of voice disease was 39.3%, 18.8%, 28.4% and 58.1% in garment market, crafts market, stock market, and vegetable market, respectively. The average incidence was 30.4% in four markets. The difference of incidence among four markets was statistically significant (P < 0.01). The difference of incidence between female and male was statistically significant in any market. Chronic laryngitis and polyp of vocal cord were found to be the major pathological manifestations in men, while Chronic laryngitis and vocal nodules were found to be the major pathological manifestations in women. In addition, laryngeal carcinoma was confirmed in 8 cases. Market noise, pollution, unhealthy habits of business trade and excessive voice were the high risk factors. The female and the business dealers aged from 30 to 50 were the high risk people. CONCLUSION Varied relevant measures should be taken to prevent and control voice disease in different subgroups of population. People should be examined thoroughly as soon as they got voice problem. Improvement of market environment and timely intervention may reduce the prevalence rate of voice disease.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; China ; Female ; Humans ; Incidence ; Laryngeal Diseases ; epidemiology ; etiology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Noise, Occupational ; statistics & numerical data ; Prevalence ; Risk Factors ; Smoking ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Voice Disorders ; epidemiology ; etiology ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo study classification of the articulation errors, find the related factors which affect the therapy effect, and compare the therapy effect in the different patterns of the phonemic errors and build up a clinical model of the speech therapy on the basis of more than 4 years speech therapy in the clinic.

METHODAfter excluding the organic articulation disorders, 91 cases of consonant phonemic errors were classified into different patterns according to the phonemic placement errors. The 91 cases were divided into two groups as effective one and ineffective one depending on whether the symptoms disappeared or not after the speech therapy. Ten factors including sex, age, oral-motor function problem, developmental delay, history of language development delay, history of middle ear affection, lingua frenata, mental retardation, the therapy frequency and times, were analyzed. The statistics software SPSS (SPSS Inc, 1997) was applied to show the factors related to the therapy effect by logistic multiple stepwise regression analysis. The therapy effect was compared between the single pattern (phonemic error < 2 groups) and multiple pattern (phonemic errors > or = 2 groups).

RESULTSThe 91 cases with consonant phonemic errors were classified into four groups. The multiple pattern of the articulation errors was the most common (37 cases, 41%) among the 4 groups, followed by velar errors (33 cases, 36%). The third one was the apico-dental errors (12 cases, 13%) and the last one was the linguo-alveolar errors (8 cases, 9%). Only one case had labiodental error (/f/). The logistic multiple stepwise regression analysis showed that the history of the positive developmental delay, language delay and the frequency of the speech therapy were related to the therapy effect. The effective rate of the speech therapy in the single pattern of the phonemic error was as high as 87% while the one in the multiple pattern group was only 2.7%. The difference was significant (P < 0.000 1) when the therapy effect in these two groups was compared. The clinical model of the speech therapy included speech assessment, designing of the goal, choice of the target sound, sound production and oral-motor functional training.

CONCLUSIONThe consonant phonemic errors in the clinic represent four groups. The developmental delay, the language delay and frequency of the speech therapy influence the therapy effect. The frequency of the speech therapy should be increased every week, for example not less two times a week. The therapy effect of the single pattern of the phonemic errors is much better than that of the multiple pattern. The primary model of the speech therapy has been built in the clinics.

Articulation Disorders ; diagnosis ; etiology ; therapy ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Multivariate Analysis ; Risk Factors ; Speech Therapy ; Voice Training

The main problem after total laryngectomy is permanent loss of voice. Current methods of vocal rehabilitation after total laryngectomy include development of esophageal speech, use of artificial larynx, tracheoesophageal shunt operations and more recently surgical restoration of the voice with prosthesis. Primary voice restoration using Blom- Singer voice prosthesis after total laryngectomy and pharyngeal myotomy was performed in 187 patients between October 1992 and July 2000. There were 184 male and 3 female patients of average age 63.7 years (range 42-76). Mean follow up period was 62 months. Satisfactory speech was achieved in 156 patients (83.5%). During the follow-up period, we experienced complaints of insufficient voice in 31 (16.5%) patients, due to partial spasm in 17 and total spasm in the pharyngoesophageal segment in 14. Furthermore, 24 (12.8%) patients preferred esophageal speech or electro larynx because of low socioeconomic level. The overall success rate was 70.7%. In this study the results of the surgical technique and prosthesis insertion, as well as the associated complications and socioeconomic levels of the patients, are discussed.
Adult ; Aged ; Carcinoma, Squamous Cell/surgery ; Female ; Human ; Laryngeal Neoplasms/surgery ; Laryngectomy/*adverse effects ; *Larynx, Artificial/adverse effects ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pharyngeal Muscles/surgery ; Voice Disorders/etiology/*surgery

OBJECTIVETo study the Chinese intelligibility of patients with velopharyngeal incompetence (VPI).

METHODS100 patients with VPI and 32 normal students were selected for this study. Of 10 patients, 15 with cleft palate, 21 with congenital velopharyngeal incompetence, 56 with post-palatoplasty VPI and 8 with post-pharyngoplasty VPI. Chinese intelligibility was measured by three speech pathologists and relation between degree of abnormal articulation and Chinese intelligibility were studied.

RESULTSChinese intelligibility of the controls was 99.0% and the patients with VPI were 35.2%. Of the patients, the cleft palate was 19.9%, the congenital velopharyngeal incompetence was 32.8%, the post-palatoplasty VPI was 40.3% and the post-pharyngoplasty VPI was 35.2%. The data showed obvious difference among the controls and sub-types of VPI (P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS(1) Chinese intelligibility of VPI accompanied with hypernasality is worse. (2) Of misarticulation of VPI, the cleft palate is the worst, in turn the others are the congenital velopharyngeal incompetence, the post-pharyngoplasty VPI and the post-palatoplasty VPI.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Articulation Disorders ; etiology ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Cleft Palate ; complications ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Speech Articulation Tests ; Velopharyngeal Insufficiency ; complications ; Voice Quality