Summary
Objective
To investigate the extent to which vocal load is associated with previous diagnosis
of a vocal pathology among four major genres of singers (primarily classical, primarily
musical theatre (MT), classical and MT combined, and contemporary commercial music
only).
Study design
Cross sectional survey.
Methods/design
An anonymous online survey was sent out to about 1000 professional singers through
convenience sampling to touring companies, opera companies, MT companies, agents,
directors and musical directors. Social media and email were used to solicit participation
in the study. We utilized means and standard deviations for continuous characteristics
and frequencies and percentages for categorical characteristics and calculated P values to assess whether differences were statistically significant.
Results
A total of 396 professional singers completed the survey, yielding a 40% response
rate. Nonprofessional singers, incomplete surveys, and respondents <18 years old were
excluded, resulting in a total of 238 responses. Among the 238 participants, 32% were
performing in the classical style primarily, 33% in the MTstyle primarily, 15% in
both classical and MT, and 20% in other contemporary styles only. Mean age was highest
among CV + MT and lowest among primarily MT. Combined classical/MT singers were most
likely to have a career outside of vocal performance and continue to work in that
career followed by other contemporary styles, classical and MT (P = 0.02). Participants in the combined classical/MT group were most likely to have
a reported history of vocal pathology followed by classical, other contemporary styles
and MT (not statistically significant). However, participants in the contemporary
styles were most likely to have a history of more than one type of vocal pathology.
Mean vocal load was highest for the MT group. Other nonsinging factors proved significant
such as allergy, hydration and acid reflux. Symptoms of allergies were found to be
significant across singing genres. A possible reverse causality association was identified
in regards to water intake. Participants with acid reflux were three times more likely
to have ever reported vocal pathology.
Conclusion
Vocal load was not significantly associated with vocal pathology across singing genres;
however other nonsinging factors such as allergy, reflux and water intake were significantly
associated with vocal pathology.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 23, 2021
Accepted:
December 21,
2020
Footnotes
Information contained in this article was originally presented at the Annual Meeting of the Voice Foundation, June 2018, Philadelphia, PA.
The authors have no funding, financial relationships, or conflicts of interest to disclose.
Identification
Copyright
© 2021 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
