Aspects of the speaking voice of elderly women with choral singing experience

Introduction: Despite several studies related to singing and aging voice found in the literature, there is still the need for investigation seeking to understand the effects of this practice in the speaking voice of the elderly. Objective: To compare the characteristics of the speaking voice of elderlies with experience in choral singing with those of elderlies without this experience. Method: Participants were 75 elderly women: 50 with experience in choral singing - group of singers (SG) and 25 without experience - group of nonsingers (NSG). A questionnaire was applied to characterize the elderly and collect data with respect to lifestyle and voice. Speech samples (sustained vowels, repetition of sentences, and running speech excerpts) were collected in a quiet room in sitting position. The voices were analyzed by three expert speech-language pathologists according to the protocol Consensus Auditory-Perceptual Evaluation of Voice (CAPE-V). Data were submitted to descriptive and statistical analysis. Results: The voices of elderly nonsingers (NSG) showed significant increase in scores related to the overall degree of deviance and presence of roughness and strain. Conclusion: Analysis of the aspects of the speaking voice of subjects in the SG, compared with that of subjects in the NSG, showed better overall degree of deviance due to lower roughness and strain.