Immediate Effects of the Semi-Occluded Ventilation Mask on Subjects Diagnosed With Functional Dysphonia and Subjects With Normal Voices

Abstract

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd Purpose: The present study was designed to assess the immediate effects of the semi-occluded ventilation mask (SOVM) in subjects with functional dysphonia and subjects with normal voice. Methods: Sixty-four participants were included in this study (48 women and 16 men). Thirty-one of them were diagnosed with functional dysphonia and 33 with normal voice. All subjects were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: an experimental condition using the SOVM (n = 33) and a control condition with participants not using the SOVM (n = 31). Thus, within both conditions, participants could be either dysphonic or normal-voiced. This produced a total of four different groups: (1) subjects with normal voice with SOVM (n = 17), (2) subjects with normal voice without SOVM (n = 16), (3) dysphonic subjects with SOVM (n = 16), and (4) dysphonic subjects without SOVM (n = 15). All participants underwent aerodynamic, electroglottographic (EGG), and acoustic assessments, and were also