Community Choir Improves Vocal Production Measures in Individuals Living with Parkinson's Disease

Arla Good; Elizabeth Earle; Esztella Vezer; Sean Gilmore; Steven Livingstone; Frank A Russo

doi:10.1016/j.jvoice.2022.12.001

Community Choir Improves Vocal Production Measures in Individuals Living with Parkinson's Disease

J Voice. 2023 Jan 13:S0892-1997(22)00391-5. doi: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2022.12.001. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Arla Good¹, Elizabeth Earle², Esztella Vezer³, Sean Gilmore³, Steven Livingstone⁴, Frank A Russo³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, Ontario. Electronic address: Arla.good@torontomu.ca.
² Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Ontario.
³ Department of Psychology, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, Ontario.
⁴ Department of Computer Science, Ontario Tech University, Oshawa, Ontario.

PMID: 36642592
DOI: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2022.12.001

Abstract

Objectives: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease leading to motor impairments and dystonia across diverse muscle groups including vocal muscles. The vocal production challenges associated with PD have received considerably less research attention than the primary gross motor symptoms of the disease despite having a substantial effect on quality of life. Increasingly, people living with PD are discovering group singing as an asset-based approach to community building that is purported to strengthen vocal muscles and improve vocal quality.

Study design/methods: The present study investigated the impact of community choir on vocal production in people living with PD across two sites. Prior to and immediately following a 12-week community choir at each site, vocal testing included a range of vocal-acoustic measures, including lowest and highest achievable pitch, duration of phonation, loudness, jitter, and shimmer.

Results: Results showed that group singing significantly improved some, though not all, measures of vocal production. Group singing improved lowest pitch (both groups), duration (both groups), intensity (one group), and jitter (one group) and shimmer (both groups).

Conclusions: These findings support community choir as a feasible and scalable complementary approach to managing vocal production challenges associated with PD.

Keywords: Intervention; Parkinson's disease; Singing; Speech therapy; Vocal quality.