Gender differences in perceived speech intelligibility in patients with facial nerve palsy

Abstract

Purpose

Facial nerve palsy (FNP) affects physical and social function, including speech. There exists discrepancy between professional and patient perception of appearance following FNP; however, speech differences remain unknown. We aimed to compare ratings of speech intelligibility by different listeners.

Method

Patients were identified through the Sydney Facial Nerve Service. FNP related scoring was obtained using the Sunnybrook Facial Grading System, Sydney Facial Grading Score, Facial Disability Index, and Speech Handicap Index. Intelligibility was scored by a speech-language pathologist, member of the public, and patient using a standardised passage. FNP scoring and intelligibility were compared using interclass coefficients (ICC).

Result

Forty patients were recruited (females = 20). There was no difference in FNP scoring, nor between the frequency or types of phonemic errors. Observers’ rating of intelligibility had an ICC of 0.807, compared with 0.266 and 0.344 for patients compared to the member of the public and speech-language pathologist respectively. Observers rated males and females intelligibility similar (p > 0.05), but females rated their intelligibility lower than males (74.5 ± 12.8 vs. 82.5 ± 8.4, p = 0.025).

Conclusion

Patients, particularly females, perceive their speech to be less intelligible than observers. Clinicians should be aware of this discrepancy, which does not correlate with physical function.

Keywords:

• facial nerve palsy
• speech
• gender

Ethical approval

Ethics approval was obtained from the Sydney Local Health District Ethics Committee under the approval 2020/ETH01044.

Author contributions

RH and EC contributed to the design of the study and formation of the manuscript, SC to analysis and review of the draft, and HL to original conception and supervision of the project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The datasets generated and analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.