Special Education Teachers' Self-Assessed Voice Health Regarding Voice Use Habits

Elif Ezgi Işık; Merve Sapmaz Atalar; Tuğberk Alioğlu; Tuğçe Sağlam; Mehmet Emrah Cangi

doi:10.1016/j.jvoice.2024.01.006

Special Education Teachers' Self-Assessed Voice Health Regarding Voice Use Habits

J Voice. 2024 Feb 22:S0892-1997(24)00008-0. doi: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2024.01.006. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Elif Ezgi Işık¹, Merve Sapmaz Atalar², Tuğberk Alioğlu³, Tuğçe Sağlam⁴, Mehmet Emrah Cangi⁵

Affiliations

¹ University of Health Sciences, Hamidiye Faculty of Health Science, Department of Speech and Language Therapy, İstanbul, Turkey.
² University of Health Sciences, Hamidiye Faculty of Health Science, Department of Speech and Language Therapy, İstanbul, Turkey; Üsküdar University, Faculty of Health Science, Department of Speech and Language Therapy, İstanbul, Turkey.
³ Üsküdar University, Faculty of Health Science, Department of Speech and Language Therapy, İstanbul, Turkey.
⁴ Rehabilitation Center, İstanbul, Turkey.
⁵ University of Health Sciences, Hamidiye Faculty of Health Science, Department of Speech and Language Therapy, İstanbul, Turkey. Electronic address: mehmetemrah.cangi@sbu.edu.tr.

PMID: 38395654
DOI: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2024.01.006

Abstract

Objectives: Special education teachers (SETs) work with students with disabilities. To get and keep these students' attention during the lesson, they may use their voices with high loudness and frequent pitch changes. These situations can be tiring for their voices and affect their vocal health. This study aimed to compare SETs' voice fatigue, reflux symptoms, and self-assessments according to their voice use habits in their work and social lives.

Methods: A total of 208 SETs were included. A Teacher Voice Use Habits Questionnaire was developed by considering the literature, taking expert opinion, and conducting a pilot study. In addition, the Vocal Fatigue Index (VFI), Voice Handicap Index-30 (VHI-30), and Reflux Symptom Index (RSI) were used. One-way ANOVA, Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis-H, and Pearson correlation analyses were performed.

Results: Of SETs, 37.5% reported frequent hoarseness, and 65.4% reported voice fatigue during/at the end of the day. Those who answered "yes" to the questions about talking loudly at home, having the television on at home, feeling stressed in the work environment, eating and drinking before going to bed at night, smoking, having frequent colds, talking loudly during the day, and voice fatigue during/at the end of the day had significantly higher scores in all scales. Those who used their voice for more than 6hours were found to have significantly higher scores on the VFI and RSI. In all scales, the scores of those who made very frequent long phone calls were significantly higher.

Conclusion: According to the SETs' reports, it was concluded that they did not comply with the rules of vocal hygiene, although they used their voices for a long time. This situation should be considered an occupational health problem in schools, and it may be helpful to screen this group's voice disorders and design preventive programs.

Keywords: Self-assessment; Special education teachers; Voice disorders; Voice use habits.