RecruitingNCT05783401

Digital Voice Analysis as a Measure of Frailty and Distress

Digital Voice Analysis as a Measure of Frailty and Distress. A Feasibility Study (DIVAN)

Sponsor

University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland

Enrollment

100 participants

Start Date

Nov 19, 2022

Study Type

OBSERVATIONAL

Conditions

Distress, Emotional Frailty

Summary

This study evaluates if it is possible to identify quantitative parameters from audio signals to describe the changes in patient's state in relation to frailty and distress.

Eligibility

Min Age: 18 Years

Inclusion Criteria8

Active cancer or haemato-oncological malignancy
Adults (≥ 18 years)
Ability to understand, speak and read German language fluently
Ability to provide written consent
Sufficient or corrected vision to see the images
Sufficient auditory comprehension for participation in the study based on the therapist's clinical opinion
Ability to concentrate for 20-30 minutes based on the investigator's clinical opinion
Signed informed consent to the study

Exclusion Criteria5

Aphonia, dysphonia or other obvious voice alterations of patient's voice
Life-expectancy shorter ≤ 14 days as judged by a physician or nurse via "surprise question"
Breathlessness whilst speaking
Cognitive impairment as judged by physician or Mini-Cog in the G8 screening tool
Severe physical, emotional or existential suffering because of which the enrollment and participation in the study would result in patient burden, as judged by the treating physicians and their multiprofessional team members

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Interventions

OTHERData acquisition: Speech acquisition

Speech test with synchronized audio and video recording. The speaking exercises and the audio and video recording will be done using a tablet computer and an application developed in-house. Freely available images showing different scenes will be integrated and displayed on the tablet to be described by the patient. The goal is to have at least two and maximum four of them described with several sentences by each patient per session. Parameters will be extracted from the patient's audio data to estimate the changes in distress and frailty.

DIAGNOSTIC_TESTData acquisition: G8 Screening tool

The G8 screening tool consists of seven items dealing with food intake, weight loss, mobility, neuropsychological problem, body mass index, prescription drug, and self-perception of health, from the Mini-Nutritional Assessment (MNA) questionnaire and was developed specifically for elderly cancer patients. The total G-8 score lies between 0 and 17. A higher score indicates a better health status.

DIAGNOSTIC_TESTData acquisition: Distress Thermometer

The distress thermometer (DT) is a measure of psychological distress in cancer patients. The instrument is a self-reported tool using a 0-to-10 rating scale.