BackgroundObese people have abnormal deposition of fat in the vocal tract that can interfere
with the acoustic voice.AimTo relate the fundamental frequency, the maximum phonation time and voice
complaints from a group of morbidly obese women.MethodsObservational, cross-sectional and descriptive study that included 44 morbidly
obese women, mean age of 42.45 (±10.31) years old, observational group and
30 women without obesity, control group, with 33.79 (±4.51)years old. The
voice recording was done in a quiet environment, on a laptop using the program
ANAGRAF acoustic analysis of speech sounds. To extract the values of fundamental
frequency the subjects were asked to produce vowel [a] at usual
intensity for a period in average of three seconds. After the voice recording,
participants were prompted to produce sustained vowel [ a] ,
[ i] and [ u] at usual intensity and height, using a
stopwatch to measure the time that each participant could hold each vowel.ResultsThe majority, 31(70.5%), had vocal complaints, with a higher percentage for
complaints of vocal fatigue 20(64.51%) and voice failures 19(61.29%) followed by
dryness of the throat in 15 (48.38%) and effort to speak 13(41.93%). There was no
statistically significant difference regarding the mean fundamental frequency of
the voice in both groups, but there was significance between the two groups
regarding maximum phonation.ConclusionIncreased adipose tissue in the vocal tract interfered in the vocal
parameters.