Cell Yell!: Health Risks in Telehealth

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine if the use of visual feedback can overcome the absence of side tone to control for vocal quality changes, specifically loudness, with speakerphone use. Method Ten men and 10 women held two 5-min conversations in pairs under audio-only and audiovisual communication conditions. Acoustical data and a number of conversational collisions (communication partners trying to speak at the same time) under each condition were compared. Results There were no statistically significant differences in acoustical measures of voice quality between audio-only and audiovisual conversations; however, vocal intensity was consistently 4 times more powerful than average face-to-face conversational intensity during both conditions. The number of conversational collisions was significantly less for the audiovisual condition as compared to the audio-only condition. Conclusion Results suggest that visual feedback did allow for modulation of conversational flow (fewer conversational collisions) but did not allow for modulation of vocal quality. Visual feedback did not overcome the absence of side tone and resulted in the same increased conversational loudness observed during the audio-only condition. As a result, remote conversational partners such as clients and telehealth practitioners are more susceptible to developing vocal health issues.