Relationships between voice features and fat/lean body mass in Polish males and females

Relationships between human voice qualities and body build are fairly well researched. However, a gap in the knowledge remains about voice and body composition associations. This study aims to assess the relationships between voice parameters and body composition (fat mass, FM and fat-free mass, FFM) of adults. A total of 204 participants (of which 81 are men) aged 18-72 years (mean: 34.1 ± 13.6 y.) took part in the examination. All of them had four tasks to complete: (i) preliminary survey, (ii) voice recordings with vowels and sentence stimuli, (iii) anthropometric measurements, and (iv) body composition analysis using bioimpedance to describe fat (FM) and lean (FFM) body mass. Canonical correlation analysis (CCA) and partial correlations controlling for age were applied. Reverse correlations between mean pitch (F_o) and shoulder circumference and averaged FFM of arms and positive relations between the first formant (F₁) and FM, BMI and shoulder-to-hip ratio were found in the male group. In the female group, positive associations between voice intensity and BMI, waist circumference, FM of trunk and waist-to-hip ratio and a relation of the same direction between maximum phonation time and FFM were found. These findings may be important for forensic science professionals and laryngologists, but further studies are essential.