Voice Pathologies and the General Population's Perception

Sean A Setzen; Tejas Kollu; Priya A Uppal; Ava A Herzog; Gillian Ridler; Melissa Thomas; Diana Luong; Rafael Cardona Rodriguez; Daniel Kayajian; Melissa Mortensen

doi:10.1016/j.jvoice.2023.10.002

Voice Pathologies and the General Population's Perception

J Voice. 2023 Oct 31:S0892-1997(23)00310-7. doi: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2023.10.002. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Otolaryngology, Albany Medical College, Albany, New York. Electronic address: setzens@amc.edu.
² Department of Otolaryngology, Albany Medical College, Albany, New York.
³ Department of Biology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York.
⁴ Department of Otolaryngology, Albany Medical Center, Albany, New York.

PMID: 37919109
DOI: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2023.10.002

Abstract

Objectives: To examine how the general population perceives voice pathology based on subjective qualities.

Study design: Descriptive, cross-sectional, survey-based study.

Methods: This is an IRB-approved Qualtrics survey on Amazon MTurk for respondents ages 18 and older. Ten subjects with voice pathologies supplied voice recordings of the Rainbow Passage to be assessed by the respondents. Respondents then assessed the voice conditions on perceived qualities of intelligence, leadership ability, and employability. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Dunnett's multiple comparison test with Sidak correction compared the mean scores of the samples (alpha = 0.05).

Results: A total of 1754 responses were included in the final dataset. The female control voice was scored as more likely to be a Fortune 500 leader as well as more intelligent, friendly, attractive, and employable when compared to the female vocal fry and muscle tension dysphonia (MTD) recordings (P < 0.0001). Conversely, the male MTD was the only male pathology that received a significantly lower score on friendliness, attractiveness, Fortune 500 leader status and employability than the male control (P = 0.0102, P = 0.0007, P = 0.0338, and P = 0.0039, respectively).

Conclusions: This study demonstrates the more critical appraisal of voice pathologies of female patients compared to their male counterparts. People with voice disorders are perceived as being less successful, a disadvantage to potential leadership and career opportunities.

Keywords: Crowd sourcing; Laryngology; Public perception; Voice disorders.