Acoustic Analysis of Voice in School Teachers

Abstract

Introduction: The term ‘voice' is the acoustic energy generated from the vocal tract that are characterized by their dependence on vocal fold vibratory pattern. Teachers as professional voice users are afflicted with dysphonia and are discouraged with their jobs and seek alternative employment. Loud speaking and voice straining may lead to vocal fatigue and vocal fold tissue damage. 
 Methods: Sixty teachers from various schools, volunteered to participate in this study. Acoustic analysis Doctor Speech Tiger Electronics, USA was used to assess the voice quality of the school teachers before and after teaching practice. The data were collected and analyzed using Doctor Speech Tiger Electronics, USA. Analysis was performed in terms of perturbation (jitter and shimmer), fundamental frequency, harmonic to noise ratio and maximum phonation time.
 Results: We found statistically significant difference in all the four parameters except the Jitter value. The fundamental frequency and shimmer value has significantly increased (P<0.001) and (P=0.002) respectively after teaching practice. Unlikely, there was significant decrease in harmonic to noise ratio value (P<0.001) and maximum phonation time value (P<0.01) after teaching practice.
 Conclusions: Vocal abuse, overuse, or misuse in teaching practice over a long period of time can result in inadequate phonatory pattern due to vocal fold tissue damage, which ultimately results in vocal nodules or polyps. So voice evaluation is particularly important for professional voice users and for the people who are concerned about their quality of voice.

Vocal Fatigue in School Teachers and It’s Relation to the Acoustic analysis of Voice

“…In the acoustic analysis of voice of teachers it was found that the F0 increased in both males and females post teaching, where in males the change was significant. The results are in agreement to the study of Mahato, Regmi, Bista & Sherpa [13], which analyzed voice of sixty teachers and found significant increase in fundamental frequency after teaching practice. In Jitter, there is no significant difference in both males and females post teaching and these results are similar to previous studies [13,14].…”

“…Results show that the mean values for MPD have decreased after teaching though these findings are not statistically significant. In previous studies significant decrease was noted in MPD [4,13].…”

“…This finding is similar to finding of Lukkanen et al [15] who obtained increase in shimmer value after vocal loading in twenty two male teachers with mean age 43.5 years, in the age range 28-60 years. Also Mahato et al [13] reported a significant increase in shimmer values. Shimmer is the amount of perturbations in voice and it may reflect poor vocal control and tissue alteration [16].…”

Fadiga e Sintomas Vocais em Professores Universitários

“…A principal queixa para as mulheres foi cansaço ao falar, enquanto para os homens foi ardência na garganta. A faixa etária e o tempo de profissão não possuem inadequado da voz, implica em danos teciduais das pregas vocais, podendo gerar nódulos e pólipos 28 .…”

A comparative and correlative study of the Voice-Related Quality of Life (V-RQOL) and the Voice Activity and Participation Profile (VAPP) for voice-related quality of life among teachers with and without voice disorders

“…[1–4] Objective voice evaluation, including imaging technique and acoustic parameters, may not be capable of showing people's daily living experiences or functional participation in activities. [5,6] There are several subjective voice-related quality of life instruments designed to capture the condition of people's voice disorders and reflect how the dysphonia they experience impacts their daily lives; these instruments include the Voice Handicap Index (VHI), [7] the Voice-Related Quality of Life (V-RQOL), [8] and the Voice Activity and Participation Profile (VAPP). [9] Multiple researchers have demonstrated the outcomes of their use of these scales to evaluate individuals’ voice-related quality of life in varying categories, yet many of these studies either lack a large quantity of participants or cover various measurements.…”