Keywords
Diabetes mellitus
neuropathy
dysphonia
How to Cite
Abstract
Objectives: We aimed to study the prevalence of phonatory symptoms in patients diagnosed with Type II diabetes and correlations, if any, between
these symptoms, vocal acoustic parameters, and findings from laryngeal examinations.
Methodology: The study was a case-controlled study involving adult diabetic patients with an equal number of healthy age and sex-matched control subjects. We administered a semi-structured questionnaire to the participants for relevant data collection and conducted voice acoustic and
perceptual voice analyses on all study participants.
Results: There were 130 study participants with an equal number of diabetic and control subjects. Vocal strain and tiring were significantly higher in the diabetic group with associated increased and significant odds ratios. These findings were supported by the Grade, Strain, and Asthenia
components of the GBRAS findings. Except for the Fundamental Frequency (F0), the groups' acoustic parameters significantly differed. There were increased odds ratios for vocal straining and tiring in subjects with established diabetes mellitus. Subjects with established diabetes perturbation measures also showed significant differences with respect to the duration. We also found Significant correlations between the Sensory Test Score, glycosylated hemoglobin, Harmonic-to-Noise ratio, and Shimmer.
Conclusions: Vocal straining and tiring were common in diabetic subjects. We inferred that neuropathy plays a significant, but not
exclusive role in the mechanism of these symptoms.