Objective: Older adults have been susceptible to low treatment adherence of behavioral therapies, while treatment adherence has been a challenge for behavioral voice therapy. To improve the adherence thus treatment effect among the older population, singing-based voice therapy was used for patients with diagnosed presbyphonia. Since feedback from the patients’ perspectives is crucial for the success and advancement of voice therapy, this presentation aims to provide qualitative results that explore older adults’ perceptions on using singing in voice therapy, covering their feedback on the implementation of the therapy, their learning facilitators and barriers, and their suggestions to enhance the therapy.

Methods: 20 older adults were recruited for this study to have individual semi-structured interview. They: 1) were diagnosed with presbyphonia by ENT doctors, 2) finished eight sessions of either the singing-based voice therapy or the traditional voice therapy (using vocal function exercises), and 3) were willing to be interviewed individually to share their views on the therapy. The interviews were audio-recorded and then transcribed. Content analysis of the transcription is ongoing and will be completed in compliance with the Braun and Clarke's six-phase thematic analysis framework. The contents between patients joining the singing-based voice therapy and those joining the traditional voice therapy will be compared according to identified themes.

Results & Conclusion: Data analysis is currently in progress, and the results will be presented at the conference.