Adverse Effects of Environmental Noise on Acoustic Voice Quality Measurements

An accurate analysis of voice quality is imperative when using acoustic measurements to diagnose vocal pathologies. It is known that noise has a significant effect on the reliability and validity of acoustic voice measurements, but the precise relationship has not been established. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of noise on the accuracy, reliability, and validity of acoustic voice quality measurements while balancing for gender, age, intersubject and intrasubject variability, microphones, computer hardware, analysis software, and type of noise. Level of noise was precisely controlled. The specific focus of interest was to determine the critical levels of noise that can invalidate voice quality measurements and to generate practical recommendations. Results suggest that the recommended, acceptable, and unacceptable levels of noise in the acoustic environment are above 42 dB, above 30 dB, and below 30 dB signal-to-noise ratio, respectively.