Over 3 million teachers in the United States use their voice as a primary tool of trade and are thought to be at higher risk for occupation-related voice disorders than the general population. However, estimates regarding the prevalence of voice disorders in teachers and the general population vary considerably. To determine the extent that teachers are at greater risk for voice disorders, 2,531 randomly selected participants from Iowa and Utah (1,243 teachers and 1,288 nonteachers) were interviewed by telephone using a voice disorder questionnaire. Prevalence-the number of cases per population at risk at a specific time-was determined. The prevalence of reporting a current voice problem was significantly greater in teachers compared with nonteachers (11.0% vs. 6.2%), chi(2)(1) = 18.2, p <.001, as was the prevalence of voice disorders during their lifetime (57.7% for teachers vs. 28.8% for nonteachers), chi(2)(1) = 215.2, p <.001. Teachers were also significantly more likely than nonteachers to have consulted a physician or speech-language pathologist regarding a voice disorder (14.3% vs. 5.5%), chi(2)(1) = 55.3, p <.001. Women, compared with men, not only had a higher lifetime prevalence of voice disorders (46.3% vs. 36.9%), chi(2)(1) = 20.9, p <.001, but also had a higher prevalence of chronic voice disorders (>4 weeks in duration), compared with acute voice disorders (20.9% vs. 13.3%), chi(2)(1) = 8.7, p =.003. To assess the association between past voice disorders and possible risks, adjusted odds ratios (ORs) were estimated using multiple logistic regression. The results identified that being a teacher, being a woman, being between 40 and 59 years of age, having 16 or more years of education, and having a family history of voice disorders were each positively associated with having experienced a voice disorder in the past. These results support the notion that teaching is a high-risk occupation for voice disorders. Important information is also provided regarding additional factors that might contribute to the development of voice disorders.

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The security of organizational databases has received considerable attention in the literature in recent years. This can be attributed to a simultaneous increase in the amount of data being stored in databases, the analysis of such data, and the desire to protect confidential data. Data perturbation methods are often used to protect confidential, numerical data from unauthorized queries while providing maximum access and accurate information to legitimate queries. To provide accurate information, it is desirable that perturbation does not result in a change in relationships between attributes. In the presence of nonconfidential attributes, existing methods will result in such a change. This study describes a new method (General Additive Data Perturbation) that does not change relationships between attributes. All existing methods of additive data perturbation are shown to be special cases of this method. When the database has a multivariate normal distribution, the new method provides maximum security and minimum bias. For nonnormal databases, the new method provides better security and bias performance than the multiplicative data perturbation method.database management, data security, data perturbation

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Because the widespread use of statistical significance testing has deleterious consequences for the development of a cumulative knowledge base, the American Psychological Association's Board of Scientific Affairs is in the process of appointing a Task Force whose charge includes the possibility of phasing out such testing in textbooks and journal articles. Just how popular is significance testing in psychology? This issue is examined in the present historical study, which uses data from randomly selected issues of the Journal of Applied Psychology for the period 1917-94. Results indicate that the practice of significance testing, at one time of restricted usage, has expanded to the point that it is virtually synonymous with empirical analysis. The data also lend support to Gigerenzer and Murray's (1987) allegation that an inference revolution occurred in psychology during the period 1940-55. Unfortunately, it is concluded that the ubiquity of significance testing constitutes a classic example of the overadoption of a methodology.