Association between voice disorder and breathing alteration in children

Abstract

Objective: to analyze the association between voice disorder and aspects related to breathing mode in children, according to sex. Methods: 250 children, aged six to nine years, attending a public school in São Paulo city, were selected. The collection consisted of spontaneously audio recorded speech samples. The breathing mode was evaluated for lip resting posture and nasal flow. Three audiologists performed the perceptual evaluation of the voice quality, with the help of GIRBAS scale. The results were associated using the chi-square test (p = 0.05). Results: 50.4% females and 49.6% males. As for the overall grade (G), 12.8% had voice disorder with respect to voice quality. In the breathing mode, 36.8% presented alterations in lip posture and 71.2%, in nasal flow. The associations between voice disorder and gender (p = 0.96), lip posture (p = 0.38) and nasal flow (p = 0.18) and between alterations in the nasal flow and sex (p = 0.449) were not confirmed. The association between lip posture and sex revealed significant differences in favor of males (p = 0.003). Conclusion: there was no statistically significant difference associating voice disorders with breathing mode (lip posture and nasal flow) and gender.