Nasalance Scores in Normal Thai Adults
Sawittree Thana-arak MSc1, Kalyanee Makarabhirom PhD1, Dechavudh Nityasuddhi MS, MSc, PhD2, Chalermpong Chatdokmaiprai MD3
Affiliation : 1 Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand 2 Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Faculty of Science and Technology, Huachiew Chalermprakiet University, Bangkok, Thailand 3 Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
Background : There is limited information exists on normative nasalance scores in normal Thai adults.
Objective : To investigate the normative nasalance scores and how age and gender influence nasalance scores in normal Thai adults.
Materials and Methods: After passing screening tests of communication disorders, 290 normal Thai adults were included as
samples. Nasalance scores were obtained using nasometry when subjects read 3 Thai passages comprising Passage 1 which was the
oral passage without nasal consonants, Passage 2 that was composed of a series of sentences containing 35% nasal consonants, and
Passage 3 which was loaded the oro-nasal passage that included both oral and nasal consonants.
Results : Mean nasalance scores for Passage 1, Passage 2, and Passage 3 were 16.69+5.21%, 51.64+4.98%, and 42.46+5.41%,
respectively. Results did not show an explicit relationship between nasalance scores and age for all passages but revealed that
females had significantly higher nasalance scores than males for all three reading passages at p<0.05.
Conclusion : Present study determined that gender affected nasalance scores for Thai adults whereas age did not. Additional factors
should be concerned and might be addressed through further research including dialect, hearing level, etc.
Keywords : Nasalance scores, Adults, Age, Gender
