Comparing Telepractice and Conventional Face-to-face Voice Therapy

Far Eastern Memorial Hospital

Status: Completed

Conditions: Speech Therapy; Dysphonia; Aged

Treatments: Behavioral: Vocal Training Via face-to face practice; Behavioral: Vocal Training Via Telepractice

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02922309

FEMH-IRB-104193-E

Details and patient eligibility

About

People over 55 years are high-risk with voice disorders. Voice disordered elderly need vocal training in order to improve communication efficiency and quality of life. However, participation in vocal training of elderly is often restricted by motivation, time of practice, and availability to hospital, which thus reduces treatment effects. The purpose of the study is to design a telecommunication vocal training system and a vocal training program for voice disordered elderly in Taiwan. The investigator proposed a 3-year consecutive study, including a single-blind, randomized controlled trial, to test the hypothesis that vocal training via telepractice for voice disordered elderly are not inferior to the standard face to face training.

Full description

Randomization: per mutated block, 40 patients on each arms (experimental and control)

Allocation: sealed envelope indicating either of the 2 groups

Intervention: weekly vocal training, each course last for 30-40 minutes,lasting for 2 months

Outcome measurement: before treatment, 1 month, 3 months, and 6 months after treatment

Primary outcome: 10-item voice handicap index

Secondary outcome: acoustics and aerodynamic parameter

Enrollment: 69 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 55+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Inclusion criteria:

• patient equal or older than 55 years old
• Voice Handicap Index-10 (VHI-10) score >10 point
• accessibility to a network connection

Exclusion criteria

• neurologic disorders
• active pulomanory disease
• mental disorder

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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69 participants in 2 patient groups

experimental

Experimental group

Description:

Vocal Training via Telepractice

Treatment:

Behavioral: Vocal Training Via Telepractice

control

Active Comparator group

Description:

Vocal Training via face-to-face practice

Treatment:

Behavioral: Vocal Training Via face-to face practice