Factors associated with vocal fry among college students.
Lady Catherine Cantor-Cutiva, Pasquale Bottalico, Eric Hunter
PMID 28805159WHAT IT FOUND
The proportion of students judged to use vocal fry did not differ across the nine acoustic conditions.
Sporadic caffeine use and background noise were associated with lower likelihood. The study is small and not causal.
Key findings
01In the adjusted analysis, sporadic caffeinated beverage consumption, babble background noise, and pink background noise were associated with lower likelihood of perceptually identified vocal fry.
02Female gender and age were associated in univariate analysis, but these associations did not remain after adjustment.
03The proportion of participants identified with vocal fry did not differ across the nine simulated acoustic conditions.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
40 students were studied, so the associations cannot be generalized. The cross-sectional design can show relation but not causation. Agreement among the three speech-language pathologists was fair. Vocal fry was judged only from the last sentence of the Rainbow passage. Caffeine consumption was self-reported, and no laryngeal examination was done.
Declared interests
The authors report no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not tell patients that caffeine or background noise changes vocal fry. The study is cross-sectional and reports associations in a small student sample, so it does not show cause or clinical effect.