Effect of teacher’s working conditions on voice disorder in Korea: a nationwide survey

Abstract

BackgroundKorean teacher’s working conditions are deteriorating. There is concern about the deterioration of teachers’ health and voice disorder is one of the most common problems. Teacher’s vocal health is important for them and their students. The aim of the present study was to investigate working conditions that may affect voice disorders.MethodsIn all, 79 primary and secondary schools were randomly selected for a nationwide school system survey (N = 3345). In 64 schools, 1617 (48.3%) teachers participated via a postal self-report questionnaire from June 2016 to August 2016. After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, data from 1301 teachers’ were used for analysis. Multiple logistic regression was used to investigate the associations between general, work-related factors, and frequent voice disorders (fVDs) to estimate the adjusted odds ratio(aOR).ResultsTeachers who reported voice symptoms more than once a week (fVD) made up 11.6%. In a multiple logistic regression, fVD was significantly associated with female, difficulty in applying for sick leave as needed, music teachers (primary school), and less than 6 h of sleep per day (primary school). The aOR for fVD was 2.72 (0.83–8.10) in the longest working hours group (> 52 h/wk) among the primary school teachers, and 1.90 (0.80–4.73) in the longest class hour group (≥ 20 h/wk), 1.52 (0.90–2.62) in homeroom teachers among the secondary school teachers, but not statistically significant.ConclusionsKorean teachers’ working conditions are associated with fVDs. The school health system must take steps to prevent and treat voice disorders of teachers.

The Risk Factors Related to Voice Disorder in Teachers: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Teachers have decreased job performance due to voice issues [12]. When these voice issues persist, they are more likely to experience leave of absence [13] or sick leave [4]. Moreover, more teachers tend to resign more frequently due to vocal issues [14].…”

“…Previous studies evaluating risk factors associated with the prevalence of voice disorders have reported that voice disorders are related to work environment [12,16,17,18,19], overall health [3,18,20,21,22], and psychological factors [2,23] as well as personal factors such as sociodemographic factors [13,20] and voice overuse [16]. Therefore, it is necessary to identify factors causing voice disorders to teachers in various dimensions and manage them to prevent these disorders.…”

Peligros ocupacionales que aportan a la presencia de síntomas de disfonía en docentes

“…Es válido reconocer también que, en algunos de los estudios citados, las variables como carga, duración de las clases, número de estudiantes, no fueron variables significativamente correlacionadas con el daño vocal, específicamente al referirse a docentes de nivel superior (Polacow, De Lima, Abranches, & De Lima, 2016), (Lee, Kim, & Lee, 2018), ver Tabla 4.…”

Distúrbio de voz como doença relacionada ao trabalho no Brasil: reconhecimento e desafios

“…Apesar do enorme impacto econômico observado, estimado em um milhão de dólares por ano, os autores ressaltam que o custo real provavelmente seria maior se outros fatores como despesa com professores substitutos e impactos em atividades não relacionadas ao trabalho fossem considerados 3 . Os autores mencionam que o presenteísmo gera custos ainda maiores e também tem sido preocupante nas escolas, pois os professores permanecem no exercício da docência mesmo sem condições vocais para cumprir suas tarefas 3,4 . Na medida em que os professores continuam usando a voz sem descanso, os distúrbios vocais tornam-se mais frequentes e crônicos 4 .…”

“…Os autores mencionam que o presenteísmo gera custos ainda maiores e também tem sido preocupante nas escolas, pois os professores permanecem no exercício da docência mesmo sem condições vocais para cumprir suas tarefas 3,4 . Na medida em que os professores continuam usando a voz sem descanso, os distúrbios vocais tornam-se mais frequentes e crônicos 4 .…”