Summary
Purpose
Teachers are professional voice users, always at high risk of developing voice disorders
due to high vocal demand and unfavorable environmental conditions. This study aimed
at identifying possible correlations between teachers' voice symptoms and their perception
of noise, the location of schools, as well as the location and conditions of their
classrooms.
Method
One hundred forty teachers (ages 21–56) from schools in Upper Egypt participated in
this study. They filled out a questionnaire including questions about the severity
and frequency of their voice symptoms, noise perception, and the location and conditions
of their schools and classrooms. Questionnaire responses were statistically analyzed
to identify possible correlations.
Results
There were significant correlations (P < 0.05) between voice symptoms, teachers' noise perception, and noise resulting from
the location and conditions of schools and classrooms. Teachers experienced severe
dysphonia, neck pain, and increased vocal effort with weekly or daily recurrence.
Among the teachers who participated in the study, 24.2% felt they were always in a
noisy environment, with 51.4% of the total participants reporting having to raise
their voices. The most common sources of noise were from student activities and talking
in the teachers' own classrooms (61.4%), noise from adjacent classrooms (52.9%), and
road traffic (40.7%).
Conclusions
Adverse effect on teachers' voices due to noise from poor school and classroom conditions
necessitates solutions for the future improvement of conditions in Egyptian schools.
This study may help future studies that focus on developing guidelines for the better
planning of Egyptian schools in terms of improved infrastructure and architecture,
thus considering the general and vocal health of teachers.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 03, 2018
Accepted:
March 8,
2018
Footnotes
The research of the Czech authors (KVP and JGS) has been supported by the Czech Science Foundation (Grantová Agentura České Republiky - GACR) project GA16-01246S.
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
