Protective and risk factors associated with voice strain among teachers in Castile and Leon, Spain: recommendations for voice training.

Abstract

OBJECTIVES:

The aim of this research was to know the protective and risk factors associated with voice strain in teachers.

METHOD AND STUDY DESIGN:

A total of 675 teachers from Castille and León, Spain took part in the research within an age range between 23 and 66 years (from nursery school to university). A cross-sectional, descriptive, and analytic design was applied to data from a self-administered questionnaire.

RESULTS:

The research showed that 16.4% had suffered some voice disorder and a remarkable percentage had never received any kind of voice training. The bivariate and multivariate analyses show that the size of the classroom, being a primary school teacher, teaching physical education, the noise caused by the students in the classroom, the struggle to keep the order within the class, raising the voice, and bad sleep are risk factors in the voice disorders. Each learning stage features a different risk factor, namely in nursery school, the noise caused by the pupils; in primary education, raising the voice; and in secondary education, the struggle to keep the order within the class. All these risk factors are linked with each other.

CONCLUSIONS:

The preventive measures must provide adequate answers to the voice requirements for every subject and stage, and these preventive measures must be based on the educational psychology principles to help the teachers deal with the problems originated by the lack of authority or the noise made by the students, using the proper voice techniques.

• Authors: Silvia Ubillos, Javier Centeno, Jaime Ibañez, Ioseba Iraurgi
• Journal: Journal of voice : official journal of the Voice Foundation (J Voice) Vol. 29 Issue 2 Pg. 261.e1-12 (Mar 2015) ISSN: 1873-4588 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 25661829 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Review)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Topics

• Adult
• Aged
• Cross-Sectional Studies
• Faculty
• Female
• Humans
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Occupational Diseases (epidemiology, etiology, therapy)
• Prevalence
• Risk Factors
• Schools
• Spain (epidemiology)
• Stress, Psychological
• Surveys and Questionnaires
• Voice (physiology)
• Voice Disorders (epidemiology, etiology, therapy)
• Voice Quality
• Voice Training
• Young Adult