Which teachers are most at risk for voice disorders? Individual factors predicting vocal acoustic parameters monitored in situ during a workweek

Abstract

Purpose: To identify the factors affecting teachers' vocal acoustic parameters, with the aim of detecting individuals at risk of phonotrauma. Method:The voicing time, voice sound pressure level [SPL] and fundamental frequency [fo] of 87 teachers were measured during one workweek using a voice dosimeter. We retrospectively investigated the impact of 10 factors (gender, age, teaching experience, teaching level, tobacco, gastro-esophageal problems, nonoccupational voice activity, voice education, past voice problems, and biopsychosocial impact of voice problems measured using the Voice Handicap Index [VHI]) on each voice parameter.Results: None of the above factors affected voicing time or SPL. fo depended significantly on gender, teaching level, nonoccupational voice activity and VHI score. Specifically, fo was higher in women (Δ = 69 Hz), in individuals without nonoccupational voice activities (Δ = 11 Hz), and in individuals with a lower VHI score (increase of 0.7 Hz for each additional point). For females, post hoc comparisons revealed a substantial impact of teaching level on fo: university instructors had deeper voices than kindergarten (Δ = 66 Hz), elementary (Δ = 52 Hz), or secondary teachers (Δ = 41 Hz).Conclusions: Since higher fo increases the mechanical stress related to vocal fold vibration, the screening and prevention of phonotrauma should focus primarily on women, particularly those who teach at lower levels, and teachers with more self-rated voice problems. The lower fo of teachers who engage in nonprofessional voice activities may suggest acute inflammation or muscle fatigue due to voice overload.

A Study on the Effect of the Club Model on the Effectiveness of College Volleyball Teaching Based on a Random Matrix Model

“…When using random matrices for processing and analysis, anomalies in the data can have a relatively large impact on the analysis of the results and produce erroneous results. Such anomalies adversely affect our analysis results and can produce relatively large errors in our classification accuracy, so it is necessary to clean and remove such anomalous data [23]. In the experiments and studies in this paper, kurtosis values are extracted to clean the data that may have anomalies.…”

Protocole pour l’entraînement des compétences de communication orale des enseignants dans un objectif de prévention vocale : Description du programme VirtuVox

“…bruit ambiant élevé), tantôt d'ordre personnel (ex. risque accru chez les femmes) (Cantor Cutiva et al, 2013 ;Remacle, Lefèvre, 2021).…”

Predictive Risk Factors and Occupational Impact of Self-Perceived Voice Problems in Preschool-Kindergarten versus First- to Sixth-Grade Teachers

“…Its score ranges from 0 to 48. A score of 0-7 designates a normal voice whereas a score of 8-48 shows a voice which is slightly (scores 8-14), moderately (scores [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22], or profoundly disordered (scores…”

“…Significant voice disorder risk factors that were identified included daily teaching hours, classroom humidity, certain types of voice usage during teaching such as falsetto voice, speaking more than other teachers, throat clearing, etc. Remacle and Lefèvre [15] pinpointed the factors influencing vocal acoustic parameters (e.g., fundamental frequency) in kindergarten, elementary school, secondary school, and university teachers in order to assess the group of teachers who are more at risk of voice disorders. The results revealed that factors such as sex, teaching level, and nonoccupational voice activity affected fundamental frequency.…”

“…Even though there are numerous studies that investigated the risk factors of voice disorders in elementary, middle, and high school teachers, the risk factors of voice disorders in preschool and kindergarten teachers have received less attention throughout the years [11][12][13][14][15]. Preschool and kindergarten teachers are a population who may teach under similar circumstances (e.g., talking for long periods of time and often increasing their volume), but also different conditions (e.g., varying their voice widely when singing and reading and teaching under higher noise levels) than elementary, middle, and high school teachers; however, sparse research exists on voice disorder risk factors in preschool and kindergarten teachers.…”