The impact of the use of oral contraceptives on voice quality

Cilj ovog rada bio je ispitati kvalitetu glasa kod ţena koje koriste oralna kontraceptivna sredstva, objektivnom metodom, odnosno akustičkom analizom glasa te usporediti kvalitetu glasa osoba koje koriste oralne kontraceptive s onima koje ih ne koriste. Sve ispitanice bile su ţenskog spola (n=20), kao i kontrolna skupina (n=20). Procjena se sastojala od snimanja fonacije glasa /a/ i mjerenja vremena proizvodnje glasova /s/ i /z/. Objektivnu procjenu činila je akustička obrada i analiza fonacije glasa /a/ pomoću programa PRAAT. Promatrane su sljedeće varijable: jitter, shimmer, omjer šumnog i harmoničnog dijela spektra (HNR), maksimalno vrijeme fonacije te omjer glasova /s/ i /z/. Statističkom obradom nisu pronađene statistički značajne razlike između eksperimentalne i kontrolne skupine što je u suglasnosti s brojnim novijim istraţivanjima koja su potvrdila kako oralna kontracepcija koja se danas koristi sadrţi otprilike pet puta niţu razinu hormona u odnosu na prve oralne kontraceptive.The aim of this paper was to examine the quality of voice in women using oral contraceptives using objective measures and compare the quality of voice of people who use oral contraceptives with those who do not use them. All participants were female (n=20), as well as the control group (n=20). Evaluation comprised of an acoustic and phonation analyses of the sound /a/ using the PRAAT programme and measurement of the ability to sustain sounds /s/ and /z/. The following variables were observed: jitter, shimmer, harmonics to noise ratio (HNR), maximum phonation time and s/z ratio. Statistical analysis did not show statistically significant differences between the experimental and control groups, which is in accordance with numerous recent studies that are confirming that oral contraceptive used today have about five times lower hormone levels than the first oral contraceptives