Personal Protective Equipment Effects

Effects of Personal Protective Equipment on Speech Acoustics

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 transmits through droplets; thus, oral, nasal, and conjunctival mucosas are related to contamination, and wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) is strongly suggested. Several communication problems between the patient and healthcare workers related to PPE use are reported. In this study, investigators aimed to investigate changes in the acoustic parameters of speech sounds when different PPE are used.

It was planned as a cross-sectional study enrolled 18 healthy male and female participants. After the informed consent, participants were asked to pronounce a [ɑː] vowel for at least 3 seconds for voice quality estimation. Afterward, all Turkish vowels were produced for a minimum of 200 ms. Finally, three Turkish fricative consonants ([f], [s], [ʃ]) were produced in consonant/vowel/consonant format and in different vowel contexts within a carrier sentence. Recordings were repeated for the following conditions: no PPE, surgical-mask, N99-mask, face shield, surgical-mask+faceshield, and N99+faceshield. All recordings were analyzed with proper statistical methods.

Inclusion Criteria:

• native Turkish speakers

Exclusion Criteria:

• having an acute respiratory system infection history of any vocal fold surgery