Factors associated with vocal fry among college students

Abstract

Purpose: Vocal fry is increasingly used in everyday speech. The purpose of this study was to identify associated factors of vocal fry among young US college-age students. Methods: Forty college students participated in a cross-sectional study. Participants produced speech under nine different room acoustic conditions (simulated). The recorded speech was perceptually evaluated by three speech-language pathologists. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify variables (individual, environmental) associated with the perceptual assessment of vocal fry. Results: A high occurrence of perceptually identified vocal fry was identified among college students. Two factors were significantly associated with lower occurrence of perceptually identified vocal fry: one individual (sporadic consumption of caffeinated beverages) and one environmental factor (speaking in an environment with background noise). Conclusions: Similar to modal phonation, fry-like phonation seems to be influenced by individual and environmental factors. Therefore, clinicians interested in including this technique as part of their intervention programs may take into account the caffeine consumption and the background noise conditions of the room where the therapy will take place in order to facilitate the production of fry-like phonation.

Keywords:

• Associated factors
• perceptual voice assessment
• vocal fry

Acknowledgements

The authors report no conflicts of interest. Thank you to the multiple subjects who participated in this study. Thanks also to Ivano Ipsaro Passione, Lauren Glowski, Mark Berardi and Russ Banks for various supporting roles in the research.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Additional information

Funding

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders10.13039/100000055

National Institutes of Health10.13039/100000002R01DC012315National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders of the National Institutes of HealthR01DC012315The research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01DC012315.