A Systematic Review of Speech-Language Pathology Interventions for Presbyphonia Using the Rehabilitation Treatment Specification System.

Many included studies were small, and nearly half had no comparison group. Only four of 17 patient-reported outcome studies had a no-therapy control group, so expectation or placebo effects cannot be ruled out. Subgroup findings are tentative because the reviewers set thresholds for duration, sessions and sex pragmatically. Nearly one-third of included papers were not in English and were machine translated. Jitter and shimmer were the only acoustic perturbation measures reported often enough for meta-analysis, and funnel plots hinted at possible publication bias.

The authors declared no competing interests.

Do not conclude that strength or resistance-based therapy is better for all voice outcomes. The 7.52 second versus 2.90 second maximum phonation time difference was a tentative subgroup finding, and Organ Functions versus Skills & Habits did not affect patient-reported voice handicap.