Effect of Vitamin D Deficiency on Voice: A Review of the Literature.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to review the current literature on the effect of hypovitaminosis D on voice.
Study Design: Narrative review.
Methods: The literature search from electronic databases included PubMed/MEDLINE, EMBASE, SCOPUS, and Google Scholar. Search terms included voice, voice quality, voice disorders, larynx, laryngology, acoustic analysis, vitamin D, calcitriol, cholecalciferol, vitamin D deficiency, and vitamin D insufficiency. All studies on patients with vitamin D deficiency, which included subjective and objective voice assessments, were reviewed.
Results: A total of 39 studies were retrieved. Only four studies met the above-mentioned inclusion criteria and hence were included in this review. The total number of subjects analyzed was 466. The subjective voice outcome measures used were the Voice Handicap Index-10 (VHI-10), self-reported phonatory symptoms, and the GRBAS scale. Objective voice outcome measures included fundamental frequency, jitter, shimmer, noise-to-harmonic ratio, maximum phonation time, and dysphonia severity index.
Conclusion: Vitamin D deficiency has no significant effect on laryngeal muscles. There was no statistically significant difference in VHI-10 score, self-reported dysphonia, perceptual voice evaluation scores, or any of the acoustic measures between those with or without vitamin D deficiency.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2023 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)