Prevalence and pattern of perceived intelligibility changes in Parkinson's disease

Miller, Nick, Allcock, Liesl, Jones, Diana, Noble, Emma, Hildreth, Anthony and Burn, David (2007) Prevalence and pattern of perceived intelligibility changes in Parkinson's disease. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 78 (11). pp. 1188-1190. ISSN 0022-3050

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Abstract

Background
Changes to spoken communication are inevitable in Parkinson’s disease (PD). It remains unclear what consequences changes have for intelligibility of speech.

Aims
To establish the prevalence of impaired speech intelligibility in people with PD and the relationship of intelligibility decline to indicators of disease progression.

Methods
125 speakers with PD and age matched unaffected controls completed a diagnostic intelligibility test and described how to carry out a common daily activity in an “off drug” state. Listeners unfamiliar with dysarthric speech evaluated responses.

Results
69.6% (n = 87) of people with PD fell below the control mean of unaffected speakers (n = 40), 51.2% (n = 64) by more than −1 SD below. 48% (n = 60) were perceived as worse than the lowest unaffected speaker for how disordered speech sounded. 38% (n = 47) placed speech changes among their top four concerns regarding their PD. Intelligibility level did not correlate significantly with age or disease duration and only weakly with stage and severity of PD. There were no significant differences between participants with tremor dominant versus postural instability/gait disorder motor phenotypes of PD.

Conclusions
Speech intelligibility is significantly reduced in PD; it can be among the main concerns of people with PD, but it is not dependent on disease severity, duration or motor phenotype. Patients’ own perceptions of the extent of change do not necessarily reflect objective measures.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	A900 Others in Medicine and Dentistry
Department:	Faculties > Health and Life Sciences > Social Work, Education and Community Wellbeing
Depositing User:	Ay Okpokam
Date Deposited:	12 Mar 2012 15:29
Last Modified:	10 Oct 2019 23:01
URI:	http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/5687

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