Summary
Objectives
Voice disorders are considered to be more common among teachers than other occupations.
However, epidemiological data are scarce and only a few researchers have studied stress
as a risk factor in voice disorders in teachers. This paper presents data from a study
on Finnish school teachers which investigated the prevalence of voice disorders and
evaluated the risk factors for voice disorders, especially stress.
Study Design
A cross-sectional study was conducted among primary and secondary education teachers
across Finland.
Methods
Voice disorders were assessed with a seven-item voice questionnaire and stress at
work was measured with a validated single-item question.
Results
The prevalence of voice disorders over the 12-month period was 54% in the sample of
1198 primary and secondary education teachers in Finland. Of the teachers, 81% were
female, and they suffered more voice disorders than the males. Stress was the most
significant explanatory variable with a 3.6-fold risk as regards voice disorders.
The association between voice disorders and stress was even stronger than that of
asthma, asthma medication, and allergic rhinitis, which are known to cause serious
risks for voice disorders in general.
Conclusions
Our results hypothesize that stress may be a multi-dimensional problem associated
with various risk factors and result in an even more urgent risk of voice disorders
in teachers than estimated. Longitudinal research is needed to investigate the causality
between voice disorders and stress among teachers. In addition, it is recommended
that in the occupational health care of teachers' consideration should be given to
the fact that voice disorders and stress may have a multi-dimensional association.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: November 03, 2018
Footnotes
Authors’ contributions: HVG and JU conceived the project, HVG performed the literature review, abstracted the findings, and drafted the manuscript. EL performed the statistical analyses and provided input on statistical questions. JU revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Declarations of interest: None.
The authors have no potential conflicts of interest related to the topic of this article.
The study was supported by the Finnish Work Environment Fund without any involvement to the study.
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
