The Correlation Between Lifetime Smoking and Ethnicity in People Who Smoke: A Study of Vocal Characteristics

Abstract:

Smoking is associated with deterioration of voice health. Detection of deterioration of voice characteristics can be an
early indicator of smoking-related laryngeal and lower respiratory diseases. This study aimed to determine if voice
characteristics could be used to differentiate demographics and years smoking among a diverse group of adults who
smoke. Audio recordings were collected from fifty-nine adults aged 19-81 who currently smoked tobacco. Audio
samples and a range of vocal measurements were analysed by gender, age, ethnicity, and number of years smoked.
Age, a proxy for years smoked, was not a significant factor in determining the vocal parameters used in this study.
Gender had some influence on voice quality, specifically in measurements of fundamental frequency, formant 4 and
jitter. There was a correlation between ethnicity and vocal parameters for shimmer. Higher shimmer and noise-to harmonic ratio values were found in smartphone-recorded audio samples. Ethnicity appeared to be a stronger proxy
for years smoked than age. Historically higher tobacco consumption among the Indigenous Māori people of New
Zealand could be one explanation for this. Variation caused by the type of recording method may be important for
informing the development of remote mHealth electronic diagnostic voice quality apps or devices.