Objective:
To examine whether there is a relationship between acoustic measurements extracted from audio recordings of sustained vowel /a/ of PWP and their VHI scores.
Background: Patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PWP) can manifest abnormalities related to voice. The Voice Handicap Index (VHI) is a self-administered questionnaire that measures the patient’s perception of the impact of his/her voice disorder from 3 aspects: functional, emotional, and physiological. their lives. It assists in guiding therapist decisions regarding effective voice disorder treatment
Method: Data of 77 PWP, 65% males, average age 64±10.6, H & Y 2.45±0.79, MoCA 22.92±4.82, VHI score 33.90±30.09 and a total of 227 recordings of a sustained vowel was analyzed. Each PWP filled out the VHI including 3 parts: functional, physical, and emotional with a 5-point scale (0-4). A higher score indicates a more severe self-perceived voice handicap. This scale was divided into two subclasses, with 4 options, each referred to as “Split”. Correlated acoustic features of PwP were extracted and 9 types of statistics were calculated per every feature.
Results: A pair of feature combinations, 10 features each, were selected from the group of features that showed accuracies above 63% for Splits A and B. The 1st combination consists of features that showed the highest results both for split A and B. The 2-nd consists of 10 high-ranked features according to chi-square ranking. Classification of each combination was performed for every Split and resulted in 8 cases per statement. The 1-st feature combination showed overall higher results, with more splits and with an accuracy rate above 70%. Most of the final highest rates per each feature combination are above 70%. Functional and physical parts are found to be more correlative than the emotional part
Conclusion: A relationship exists between the acoustic characteristics of PWP and their VHI scores. An established connection between the VHI and the voice of PWP can assist in diagnosing and monitoring the disease by using the VHI.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
Y. Manor, Y. Kochetkov, Y. Hauptman, D. Shpunt, A. Zait, T. Gurevich. Analysis of the relationship between acoustic measures and VHI score [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2023; 38 (suppl 1). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/analysis-of-the-relationship-between-acoustic-measures-and-vhi-score/. Accessed May 12, 2025.« Back to 2023 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/analysis-of-the-relationship-between-acoustic-measures-and-vhi-score/