الفهرس 
The Effect Of Wearing Face Masks On Voice And Intelligibility Of Speech In Egyptian Working Individuals
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Abstract
The use of face masks became mandatory during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The three most commonly used face mask types are the N95, surgical, and cloth
masks. Face masks may have adverse effects on communication as they can lead to
distortion of the speech signal with subsequent affection of speech intelligibility
and voice especially among occupational voice users. Aim: the aim is to evaluate
the effect of wearing face masks on voice and intelligibility of speech in Egyptian
working individuals. Subjects and methods: the study included 153 participants.
Personal data and data about the nature of their workplaces were collected.
Evaluation included subjective and objective assessment of voice and intelligibility
of speech. Subjective assessment of voice and intelligibility of speech was
obtained by applying a specifically designed questionnaire. Objective assessment
of voice was performed by measuring some voice parameters by Computerized
Speech Lab, while objective assessment of speech intelligibility was done by
application of the Arabic Speech Intelligibility Test for Adolescents and Adults.
Results: the present study revealed poor workplace acoustics for subjects under the
study. Increased their self-perception of voice fatigue, speech unintelligibility,
auditory feedback received from the listeners, and breathing difficulty in case of
wearing face masks. Medical professions showed increased self-perception of
speech unintelligibility and the received auditory feedback than nonmedical
professions. Assessment of voice revealed no significant difference in absolute
jitter with and without face mask. With face mask, shimmer and mean fundamental
frequency were increased, while noise to harmonic ratio and maximum phonation
time were decreased. The study revealed decreased scores of speech intelligibility
with face mask, especially with the N95 mask. Conclusion: wearing face masks
has a negative impact on communication in workplace, especially with poor room
acoustics, as they affect speech intelligibility on both subjective and objective
aspects, with subsequent affection of voice as it was found that they caused
increased self-perception of voice fatigue and changes in some aspects of objective
voice parameters.