Jan Dalkvist

Perceptual analysis of child hoarseness using continuous scales

The voices of 58 10-year old children were recorded on audiotape and judged by a panel of voice expert listeners, who rated the voices along 16 voice parameters represented by visual analogue (continuous) scales on a test form. Interjudge reliability was high. Rank ordered rating means revealed a discontinuity in the distribution for most parameters. A factor analysis revealed three factors of major relevance to the perception of these voices. The factors were closely associated with hoarseness, pitch, and phonatory effort. The hoarseness factor was found to have high loadings in gratings, breathiness, hyperfunction, roughness, instability, and voice breaks. A stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that breathiness, hyperfunction and roughness are good predictors of hoarseness.

Aetiologic Factors Associated with Hoarseness in Ten-Year-Old Children

The parents of 55 10-year-old children answered questionnaires concerning 51 elements of potential relevance to voice function such as vocal habits, speech and language development, medical history, social history, physical environment and family relations. In addition, personality profiles of each child were assessed by its teacher and parents. The results were compared to an expert listening panels evaluation of hoarseness and vocal-fold status as determined by a visual examination by a phoniatrician. Eight boys were identified as being chronically hoarse. Gender, personality and hours spent per day in large groups were highly significant factors associated with hoarseness. A discriminant analysis based on the significant background variables correctly grouped 86.3% of the children.

Headache and mood: A time‐series analysis of self‐ratings

Self-ratings with respect to headache and five mood dimensions were obtained twice daily from five patients suffering from migraine and six patients suffering from muscle-contraction headache during a mean period of 47.9 days (range: 38–61). The data were analysed by multiple regression, with the rated headache as dependent variable. Different time intervals between measurement of the independent variables and measurement of the dependent variable were used. A significant time-dependent relation was found between the migraine ratings and the alertness ratings. Significant time-dependent relations were also found between rated muscle-contraction headache and rated anger and alertness, respectively, but the trends were not very pronounced. In the case of no time lag, rated muscle-contraction headache tended to be negatively related to rated alertness, happiness and concentration. Significant periodic trends were found for both the migraine and the muscle-contraction headache. The major findings are discussed in terms of stress and biological rhythms.