Soonchunhyang Med Sci.  2022 Dec;28(2):96-106. 10.15746/sms.22.020.

Possible Association between Differences in Nasalance Scores and Early Spread of COVID-19 Based on Linguistic Analysis

• Lee K
• Shim SR
• Kim JH

• KMID: 2539170
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.15746/sms.22.020

Abstract

Objective
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020 after more than 118,000 cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) had been reported in 114 countries. Our study analyzed the cumulative incidence rate based on WHO data starting with the first confirmed patient until the peak of transmission. In addition, the numerical values of nasometry from normal subjects were quantified to analyze the linguistic features.
Methods
This study consisted of two main methodologies including a meta-analysis based on nasometry data involving normal adults and cumulative incidence rate based on WHO data. In addition, the numerical values of nasometry from normal subjects were quantified to analyze the linguistic features.
Results
The pooled overall mean differences (MDs) for oral text nasalance among linguistic families were 14.655 (95% confidence interval [CI], 7.986–21.324) in Arabic, 24.441 (95% CI, 17.920–30.962) in Chinese, 14.964 (95% CI, 13.677–16.251) in European, and 11.437 (95% CI, 9.880–12.994) in Ural-Altaic. The pooled overall MDs for cumulative incidence rate of COVID-19 were 190.3 (95% CI, 56.10–324.60) in Arabic, 283.20 (95% CI, 1.80–564.60) in European, and 5.70 (95% CI, 4.90–6.60) in Ural-Altaic. Correlation between oral nasalance score and cumulative incidence was significant (P=0.0004).
Conclusion
Our study showed the possible association between language characteristics and early spread of COVID-19. Further studies are needed to validate our outcomes based on various epidemiologic and behavioral factors including mask wearing.

Keyword

COVID 19; Nasometry; Nasalance