Association between acoustic speech features and non-severe levels of anxiety and depression symptoms across lifespan.

Autor: Albuquerque L; Institute of Electronics and Informatics Engineering of Aveiro, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal.; Center of Health Technology and Services Research, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal.; Department of Electronics Telecommunications and Informatics, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal.; Department of Education and Psychology, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal., Valente ARS; Institute of Electronics and Informatics Engineering of Aveiro, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal.; Department of Electronics Telecommunications and Informatics, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal., Teixeira A; Institute of Electronics and Informatics Engineering of Aveiro, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal.; Department of Electronics Telecommunications and Informatics, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal., Figueiredo D; Center of Health Technology and Services Research, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal.; School of Health Science, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal., Sa-Couto P; Center for Research and Development in Mathematics and Applications, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal.; Department of Mathematics, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal., Oliveira C; Institute of Electronics and Informatics Engineering of Aveiro, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal.; School of Health Science, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: PloS one [PLoS One] 2021 Apr 08; Vol. 16 (4), pp. e0248842. Date of Electronic Publication: 2021 Apr 08 (Print Publication: 2021).
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0248842
Abstrakt: Background: Several studies have investigated the acoustic effects of diagnosed anxiety and depression. Anxiety and depression are not characteristics of the typical aging process, but minimal or mild symptoms can appear and evolve with age. However, the knowledge about the association between speech and anxiety or depression is scarce for minimal/mild symptoms, typical of healthy aging. As longevity and aging are still a new phenomenon worldwide, posing also several clinical challenges, it is important to improve our understanding of non-severe mood symptoms' impact on acoustic features across lifetime. The purpose of this study was to determine if variations in acoustic measures of voice are associated with non-severe anxiety or depression symptoms in adult population across lifetime.
Methods: Two different speech tasks (reading vowels in disyllabic words and describing a picture) were produced by 112 individuals aged 35-97. To assess anxiety and depression symptoms, the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS) was used. The association between the segmental and suprasegmental acoustic parameters and HADS scores were analyzed using the linear multiple regression technique.
Results: The number of participants with presence of anxiety or depression symptoms is low (>7: 26.8% and 10.7%, respectively) and non-severe (HADS-A: 5.4 ± 2.9 and HADS-D: 4.2 ± 2.7, respectively). Adults with higher anxiety symptoms did not present significant relationships associated with the acoustic parameters studied. Adults with increased depressive symptoms presented higher vowel duration, longer total pause duration and short total speech duration. Finally, age presented a positive and significant effect only for depressive symptoms, showing that older participants tend to have more depressive symptoms.
Conclusions: Non-severe depression symptoms can be related to some acoustic parameters and age. Depression symptoms can be explained by acoustic parameters even among individuals without severe symptom levels.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Databáze: MEDLINE
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