The Impact and Application Exercises on Vocal Fatigue

Objective To investigate the therapeutic efficacy and application of different straw phonation exercise regimens as interventions for vocal fatigue. Methods One hundred and fourteen healthy adults aged 20–40 years with no organic lesions confirmed by endolaryngoscopic examination were selected and randomly divided into the following groups: (1) control group, (2) Experimental Group A, and (3) Experimental Group B. Immediately following a one-hour vocal loading task (VLT), intervention was provided to all three groups. The control group underwent a 10-minute vocal rest, the Experimental Group A was provided a 10-minute straw phonation exercise, and the Experimental Group B performed a 5-minute straw phonation exercise after a 5-minute vocal rest. Acoustic parameters including maximum phonation time (MPT), Fundamental frequency (F0), jitter, shimmer, harmonic-to-noise ratio (HNR) and cepstral peak prominence for speech (CPP-s) and perceptual voice assessment including Vocal Tract Discomfort (VTD) and Perceived Phonatory Effort (PPE) were performed before VLT (T0), immediately after VLT (T1), and post-intervention (T2). Results Acoustically, The control group showed no significant changes across the different measurement times. Experimental Group A exhibited significant changes in MPT, jitter and CPP-s. Experimental Group B demonstrated significant changes in MPT, jitter, shimmer, HNR, and CPP-s ( p  < 0.05). 2) Between-group comparisons: No differences were observed between the three groups at T0 and T1. However, at T2, Experimental Group B showed superior MPT, jitter, shimmer, HNR, and CPP-s values compared to the control group, whereas Experimental Group A had higher CPP-s values than the control group. 3) At T2, both Experimental Groups A and B outperformed the control group in the VTD (lump in the throat) and PPE scores, and Experimental Group A had higher scores of VTD (Total) than Experimental Group B. Conclusion Straw phonation is more effective than vocal rest alone in improving voice quality, VTD (lump in the throat), VTD (Total) and PPE after vocal fatigue. After prolonged vocal use, a 5-minute vocal rest followed by 5-minute straw phonation yielded better voice quality improvements and lower vocal tract discomfort compared to immediate 10-minute straw phonation training, illustrating the importance of timing for performing straw phonation after prolonged phonatory loading tasks as indicated by objective measures and subjective voice assessment.