• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.151-159
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of voice disorders and the Korean voice handicap index in the elderly. For this study, 169 elderly performed two types of questionnaires and vowel /a/ prolongation. Self-reported voice symptoms and the Korean voice handicap index were analyzed and acoustic voice evaluation was performed by MDVP. The results showed that the prevalence of voice disorders in the elderly are significantly higher than that of adults in self-reports. In acoustic evaluation, 32.2% of the male elderly and 40.9% of the female elderly exceeded the thresholds of Jitter (%), Shimmer (%) and NHR. In addition, Korean voice handicap index scores of the female elderly are significantly higher than those of female adults. These findings indicate the high frequency of voice disorders in the elderly and the need to focus on this group. Additional studies on the voice related quality of life for the elderly are needed.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.9-17
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to find out how voice recognition technology can be utilized to solve the elderly problem rapidly aging in Korea. Public support services and civilian nursing services for the elderly are expected to expand in Korea. In this case, voice recognition technology can be used variously for the elderly who are not familiar with the media interface. To this end, our researchers visited Japan and examined the achievements obtained by voice recognition technology in the elderly care. Especially, when caregivers write reports, they have greatly reduced their working hours by replacing the handwritten reports with ones using voice recognition technology. This method can be easily implemented in Korea. In addition, the social cost of the elderly support can be gradually reduced through the development of a robot equipped with voice recognition technology. Consequently, we realize that when voice recognition technology is combined with artificial intelligence programs of various emotion recognition functions and various policy possibilities as well.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.249-255
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• 2016

Since the elderly voices include a lot of noise caused by physiological changes in respiration, phonation, and resonance, the performance of the convergence health-care equipments such as speech recognition, synthesis, analysis program done by elderly voice is deteriorated. Therefore it is necessary to develop researches to operate health-care instruments with elderly voices. In this study, a voice activity detection using a symmetric higher-order differential energy function (SHODEO) was developed and was compared with auto-correlation function(ACF) and the average magnitude difference function(AMDF). It was confirmed to have a better performance than other methods in the voice interval detection. The voice activity detection will be applied to a voice interface for the elderly to improve the accessibility of the smart devices.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.155-162
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• 2012

The population of Korea is ageing as the number of elderly people increases due to improvements in health care and diet. Accordingly, it is expected that interest in how to live actively during the years after retirement and how to communicate effectively will increase the demand for voice improvement methods and technology. However, the criteria to evaluate the voice strength and characteristics of the elderly are lacking. In this study, we analyzed the acoustic characteristics of elderly women living in the community according to residential status and mental health status (e.g. depressive mood). Accordingly, we selected women (n=63) above the age of 65 age who were living in the Seoul metropolitan area and Daegu Gyeongbuk. The selected subjects were divided into two groups: a normal speaker group (n=40) and a speaker group comprised of those suffering from depressive mood (n=23). This study analyzed the voice characteristics of subjects based on collected data through the sustained phonation of the vowel /a/. It was shown that there were differences among MPT, F0, Jitter, Shimmer and NHR depending on location of residence but no difference with regard to depressive mood. Therefore, we must consider location of residence in elderly as the key factor in demonstrating the voice norms of seniors.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.69-76
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• 2018

The elderly are at increased risk of developing dysphagia due to aging and illnesses. The aim of the current study was to analyze, via an acoustic study, the change in the voice quality of normal elderly people after a 3oz water-swallow test. Subjects included a group of 60 normal elderly people (age: $mean{\pm}SD=76.9{\pm}6.66$) and 60 healthy young adults (age: $mean{\pm}SD=25.1{\pm}2.36$). Every participant produced a five-second /a/ phonation pre- and post-swallowing, and the fractioned two-second sections were analyzed using the MDVP (multi dimensional voice program) analysis. The elderly group demonstrated a post-swallowing increase in the following related acoustic parameters: fundamental frequency, fundamental frequency variation, amplitude-variation, and noise in both two-second sections. However, the younger group showed an increase only in frequency related acoustic parameters (i.e., STD ) in the first two-second section. The significant changes in values in the post-swallowing parameters might indicate temporary irregularities in pitch and amplitude along with higher amounts of noise in the voice. The results could be attributed to water residues in the vocal fold and vocal tract, as well as a deterioration of the motor and sensory functions caused by anatomical and physiological changes that result from aging.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.16-19
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• 2014

The presbyphonia is a combination of physiological and structural changes due to aging of the larynx in elderly patients with voice problems. Some of these changes are inevitable, while others may be avoidable or reversible. The fatigue of phonation is the most common clinical symptom of the aging voice. The voice problems with aging are produced from variable causes including the organic lesions of the larynx. It is essential that the curers understand physiologic and pathologic changes of aging voice for minimizing glottal incompetence and improving vocal performance and quality of life of the elderly.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.351-356
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• 2018

Changes in vocal cords due to aging can change the frequency of speech, and the speech signals of the elderly can be automatically distinguished from normal speech signals through various analyzes. The purpose of this study is to provide a tool that can be easily accessed by the elderly and disabled people who can be excluded from the rapidly changing technological society and to improve the voice recognition performance. In the study, the gender of the subjects was reported as sex analysis, and the number of female and male voice samples was used equally. In addition, the gender analysis was applied to set the voices of the elderly without using voices of all ages. Finally, we applied a review methodology of standards and reference models to reduce gender difference. 10 Korean women and 10 men aged 70 to 80 years old are used in this study. Comparing the F0 value extracted directly with the waveform and the F0 extracted with TF32 and the Wavesufer speech analysis program, Wavesufer analyzed the F0 of the elderly voice better than TF32. However, there is a need for a voice analysis program for elderly people. In conclusions, analyzing the voice of the elderly will improve speech recognition and synthesis capabilities of existing smart medical systems.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.270-278
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• 2019

This study was performed to compare the aerodynamic characteristics of young and elderly adult male patients with voice disorders during continuous speech. Aerodynamic measurements were obtained after 12 young male patients and 9 elderly male patients read a paragraph. The elderly group showed longer duration, lower airflow rate and air volume than the younger group, but the differences were not significant except phonation time. So, when interpreting the meaning of aerodynamic measures of elderly voice disorder patients in the aspects of airflow and air volume, it should take into account various conditions(e. g. reading materials, pulmonary functions) as well as age.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.21-27
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• 2019

Background and Objectives : Voice disorder is recognized as a major problem because it negatively affects the elderly's social participation and quality of life. The purpose of this study was to examine the validity and reliability of Korean aging voice index (KAVI), which assesses the quality of life related to the voice of the elderly. Materials and Method : This study was conducted on 211 elderly people aged 65 years or older : 111 patients with voice disorder (mean age 69.8, range 65-80 years) and 100 nomorphonic participants (mean age 70.6, range 65-82 years). Aging voice index was translated into Korean and used and Korean voice-related quality of life (KVQOL) was conducted to verify KAVI. The validity (item validity, concurrent validity, and construct validity) and reliability (test-retest reliability and internal consistency reliability) of KAVI. Results : The item validity (ICC=0.895) and construct validity (r=0.765) showed a high correlation, respectively. And concurrent validity (r=0.748), test-retest reliability (0.851), and internal consistency reliability (${\alpha}=0.832$) were statistically significant in voice disorder group. In addition, there was a significant difference between the voice disorder and the nomorphonic group in AVI total score. Conclusion : KAVI is a validated and reliable quality of life tool that will be useful for assessing the presence and effectiveness of interventions in clinical settings.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.87-94
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to investigate the speech characteristics and speech therapy of Parkinson disease (PD). This study selected 28 papers published in Korea from 1998 to 2018 after searching the terms 'Parkinson voice' and 'Parkinson speech therapy.' Literature review had been conducted in the two aspects of speech characteristics and speech therapy. The speech characteristics were divided into respiration, phonation, articulation, prosody, vowel production, and voice questionnaire. Speech therapy was divided into Lee Sliverman voice treatment (LSVT) and other voice therapy. PD patients did not differ in respiration function compared to normal elderly people, but their speech and articulation function were poorer. There was also a difference in the speech rate, frequency of pause, and accuracy of vowel production compared with normal elderly people. PD had a lower VHI score and their voice related quality of life was a little poorer. The LSVT was typically used in speech therapy for PD. The methods of speech therapy for PD have been shown to improve respiration and phonation. It is necessary to establish voice norms in PD patients and develop effective speech therapy in the following study.