Sex Differences in the Speech of Persons With and Without Parkinson's Disease

BACKGROUND

Sex differences are apparent in the prevalence and the clinical presentation of Parkinson's disease (PD), but their effects on speech have been less studied.

METHOD

Speech acoustics of persons with (34 females and 34 males) and without (age- and sex-matched) PD were examined, assessing the effects of PD diagnosis and sex on ratings of dysarthria severity and acoustic measures of phonation (fundamental frequency standard deviation, smoothed cepstral peak prominence), speech rate (net syllables per second, percent pause ratio), and articulation (articulatory-acoustic vowel space, release burst precision).

RESULTS

Most measures were affected by PD (dysarthria severity, fundamental frequency standard deviation) and sex (smoothed cepstral peak prominence, net syllables per second, percent pause ratio, articulatory-acoustic vowel space), but without interactions between them. Release burst precision was differentially affected by sex in PD. Relative to those without PD, persons with PD produced fewer plosives with a single burst: females more frequently produced multiple bursts, whereas males more frequently produced no burst at all.

CONCLUSIONS

Most metrics did not indicate that speech production is differentially affected by sex in PD. Sex was, however, associated with disparate effects on release burst precision in PD, which deserves further study.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.24388666.

Craniofacial screening profile: quick screening for congenital malformations

The correct identification of syndromes and other congenital malformations at an early age is critical for the child, family and care providers. Most specialists who conduct large screenings of young children are not adequately trained to recognize signs and symptoms that should lead to appropriate referral to the clinical geneticist and/or diagnostic team. A systematic approach for recognizing important signs is presented here; a Craniofacial Screening Profile. Following a brief training program, the Profile was validated by 39 speech-language pathologists in screening 3,539 kindergarten and first grade children. The results were excellent (specificity was 99.6%), demonstrating that with limited training, specialists can effectively screen for important signs and symptoms of a major group of syndromes and other congenital malformations.

Hyperuricemia And Estimated Cardiovascular Risk Among Migrant and non-migrant Africans

Objective

In the advent of rapid urbanization, migration and epidemiological transition, the extent to which serum uric acid (sUA) affects cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk among Africans is not well understood. We assessed differences in sUA levels and associations with estimated CVD risk among migrant Ghanaians in Europe, and non-migrant Ghanaians in rural and urban Ghana.

Methods

Baseline data from 633 rural, 916 urban and 2315 migrant RODAM study participants (40-70 years) were analyzed. Hyperuricemia was defined as sUA >7mg/dl in males and >6mg/dl in females. Elevated CVD risk was defined as pooled cohort equation estimates ≥ 7.5%. Logistic regressions were used to assess differences in hyperuricemia and associations with estimated CVD risk. Receiver operator curves were used to calculate sUA cut off values that maximised likelihood of elevated CVD risk.

Results

Prevalence for hyperuricemia in rural, urban and migrant participants were 17.4%, 19.1% and 31.7% for men, and 15.9%, 18.2% and 33.2% for women, respectively. Hyperuricemia was positively associated with elevated CVD risk among rural residents(adjusted OR for men 2.88, 95%CI, 1.20-6.88, 5.32, 95%CI, 2.86-9.95 for women), urban residents(1.26, 95%CI, 0.59-2.69 for men, 2.41, 95%CI, 1.56-3.73 for women) and migrants(2.39, 95%CI, 1.57-3.64) for men, 3.74, 95%CI, 2.78-5.02 for women). SUA cut-off values were 6.8mg/dl in men and 5.2mg/dl in women.

Conclusions

Our study shows variations of sUA levels in different African contexts. Hyperuricemia is associated with elevated estimated CVD risk in both migrants and non-migrants. Further studies should identify factors driving associations between SUA and CVD risk in Africans.

Key messages

Hyperuricemia is a risk factor for cardiovascular risk in both migrants and non-migrants. Cardiovascular risk is seen at low levels of serum uric acid levels in Africans.